Make a stand on phones
TOP marks to new Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan for identifying a key issue which impacts directly on student standards in schools.
Mobile phones are a disaster in schools and should be banned entirely.
Having spent years in classrooms, be assured if a student has a phone on them in the classroom, it will be surreptitiously used for a range of unauthorised reasons such as emails, Snapchat and Facebook.
There is a whole other world of communication going on which has nothing to do with learning.
Outside the classroom, the schoolyard has become a battleground of mobile phone interaction.
Some schools are onto this, but students will find a way around restrictions because they are dependent on their mobile phones.
On a related matter, the NSW Government has announced an inquiry into the use of technology in schools. Such an inquiry is long overdue. While we live in the age of the internet, and its legitimate uses are many, there is no doubt some vital skills that children must learn are being lost along the way. The most obvious abuse of the internet is plagiarism.
Until there is a united stand on these key issues, our student standards will continue to decline. It’s time the Queensland Government stood up and seriously addressed these concerns. Robyn Quick, Fishery Falls