In a move to keep “childhood smartphone-free”, Ireland’s Education Minister Norma Foley said she is considering introducing a ban on mobile phones in secondary schools.
The minister said the government has done a “huge body of work” around mobile phones and pointed out that studies suggest that mobile phones interrupt learning in a school environment.
“I have met with mobile phone providers, I have met with the social media platforms and we will continue to educate both at primary and at post-primary, but I am now in a space where I am saying … looking to introduce a ban on the mobile phone at post-primary,” Minister Foley said.
“Obviously they’re a cause of cyber bullying and we know too the conversation, the integration, the community of conversation that’s so important in school, is very much interrupted by the fact that students take out their mobile phones at different times,” she said.
“I’m very clear that I think we need to establish in our schools a culture of non-acceptance of the mobile phone,” the minister added.
A number of schools across the country have already placed a ban on students from using phones during school time.