Phones will be banned in the classroom under new plans being prepared by Government.
Senior government ministers are keen to tackle what was referred to as “the scourge” of the rampant prevalence of phones in schools.
The flood of phones in schools, particularly smartphones, is having a detrimental effect on education, with teachers telling the Irish Mirror that it is “destroying” school life.
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Education Minister, Norma Foley, has recognised this and is working on legislative solutions to address the problem.
Tanaiste Micheal Martin is another strong supporter of the proposal, which will be officially brought to the Cabinet table in the coming weeks.
Ms Foley previously indicated to the Mirror in September that she would support schools in their efforts to get rid of phones in schools.
But now she is going much further by bringing proposals to the Cabinet table, where real concrete laws and regulations are made.
A senior Government source told the Mirror last night: “a memo is being prepared by the Minister for Education (for Cabinet) and will be presented shortly.”
The proposal is expected to receive widespread support when it comes up for discussion with Government ministers at Cabinet, potentially as soon as the week after next.
Another senior Government source is giving the plan wholehearted support as he told the Mirror “it’s time to end the scourge of phones in our schools for the wellbeing of our children.”
The exact logistics of the ban have yet to be worked out, but some schools that have voluntarily brought in the ban did so by ordering pupils to leave their phones outside of class in lockers or special boxes.
Anecdotally, this was a great success, when it worked.
One Head of Year teacher from Galway spoke to the Mirror on Wednesday night and explained the amount of damage he believes smartphones are wreaking in our schools.
He said: “In my opinion, a generation has been destroyed by smartphones.
“Their attention span is ruined, they’re never off them under their desks.
“I say to them now in maths class, and I have to, ‘lads, can I just have your attention for three minutes,’ which is when I have to hammer home the point because that’s all I’ll have them for these days.
“Bullying is another massive problem online that’s being facilitated by smartphones.
“Every class, every year and sometimes the whole school have their own WhatsApp groups."
He added: “Plus, they have the world at their fingertips through a smartphone and for the younger students it’s killing their innocence and wonder very early on.
“They’re being exposed to the horrors of the world too soon.”
The veteran teacher of 35 years wholeheartedly welcomed the plan, but from his experience he said he could see the implementation of it being the hard part, with pushback potentially coming from parents, teachers and students.
He added: “It’s a wonderful idea, but it won’t be easy to introduce.
“We tried with the exam years getting them to leave their phones in their lockers, but we found with a lot of them, they’ll just bring in second phones.
“And then there are parents too, many of them will demand that they be able to contact their child at all times, they’ll say, ‘who are you to ban my child?’
“That could be very tricky.”
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