Without a government body to legislate the result, UK education authorities have discovered that over 90% of national schools have instituted smartphone bans, a measure still being debated by industry members and scientists.
Representing a triumph of distributed sovereignty, a survey of more than 15,000 schools found that 99.8% of elementary schools and 90% of middle schools had instituted some form of ban, the Guardian reports.
The paper further claimed that education leaders in the UK have largely supported school autonomy and guidance rather than government regulation on the question of smartphones, and the schools seem to have used that autonomy quite decisively.
Current Education Secretary Bridget Philipson said that the results of the survey represents “comprehensive evidence,” that “shows our approach of backing headteachers to implement bans in their schools is working.”
Individual school action has showed before that prohibiting smartphone use in schools, or at least while classes are in session, can improve student performance. Some classes used tablets and phones as teaching materials, and such usage wasn’t included in the survey findings of device usage.
“A lot of this is about a battle for attention, a battle for focus and concentration. It’s not just about having your phone out and using it, it’s the mere presence of the phone,” Tom Rees, chief executive of the Ormiston academies trust, one of the largest private school businesses in the country, told the Guardian.
“There’s evidence that tells us that even if your phone is in the same room, it could be in your bag or pocket, your brain is leaking attention, still thinking about it and being drawn to it, wondering if there has been a notification on it and what it might be.”
Ormiston was the first academy chain to go smartphone-free,
Justine Elbourne-Cload, co-chair of the St Albans primary schools consortium, the first institution in the country to implement a total smartphone ban for under-14 age groups, said that parents’ reactions had been “phenomenal.”
“They are really onboard. Parents are crying out for that support.”
In the United States, policies on phone usage are being left up to the states, and several have already implemented some forms of restrictions.
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In Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas, governments have allocated grant money to any school district that wants to begin controlling smartphone and device usage by closing them away in secure pouches or boxes at the beginning of lessons.
Florida and California have passed prohibitions already, with the latter mandating its effect by the end of the next school year (July 1st). Ohio, Virginia, Minnesota, Indiana, and Louisiana have all passed measures that compel schools to come up with their own programs and methods for reducing, controlling, or eliminating smartphone and device usage during school hours or in classrooms.
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Several other states, including Washington and Alabama, have taken a lighter touch, passing non-binding measures that encourage schools to take action, rather than mandating it.
“The research is clear: Reducing the use of cellphones in class improves concentration and learning, improves mental and physical health, and reduces pressures caused by social media,” said Washington schools superintendent Chris Reykdal in an official guidance document.
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