As schools embrace technology, rules to limit smartphone use would be supported – Manickchand

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on Monday contended that it may be important for schools to monitor the use of smartphones during school hours.

Manickchand believes this will reduce distractors and encourage students to be more productive.

And she revealed that if schools chose to implement rules to limit the use of smartphones, the ministry would support those rules.

According to the minister, the Swami Vidya Niketan, a private school in Region Three, already has this rule implemented.

“We coming with that and the children and the parent gonna quarrel but we coming and it is for a reason, it is a lot of distraction,” Manickchand said.

She added: “You [parents] and I as adults know you can be scrolling and watching sheer stupidness and every scroll is a video. And when you check your time, you just finished an hour scrolling and doing stupidness instead of being outside in the sunshine or watching something sensible or doing something sensible.”

Manickchand later clarified that she does not suggest that there should be a ban on smartphones. Instead, she said schools will be given the autonomy to decide how they manage the use of smartphones.

“… once you have internet and access how children utilise that, it is in their own interest and so if this school decide that we are not going to allow the usage of cellphone during school hours then that is something we will support and schools across the country are going to be given the autonomy to determine how they want their schools to run in certain ways and for certain issues,” Manickchand explained.

But once the rule/s to limit the use of smartphones are implemented there will be no change.

“If we say no devices during school hours because the school is connected to the internet which means your children could do all kinds of things that are frightening.

“If we say you will put the phone in your bag and you can look at it at 12 to see if your mother sent you anything, your mother has access to the school phone if she needs you and you can look at it at 3 [pm], if we say that is the rule, that is the rule,” Manickchand said.