By RNZ
Young people will stop at nothing to find a way around a proposed nationwide phone ban in schools, a Wairarapa parent says.
To improve learning outcomes, the National Party has promised to ban cellphones from schools if it is elected in October.
Many parents are on board - but cannot imagine how a total ban will work in practice.
Wairarapa parent Andrew McKenna said children already have sneaky tactics to sidestep existing device controls at school.
His daughter, who’s in Year 13, attends a school where phones are kept in a box during class and the internet is accessed through a restricted intranet system.
“They’d be getting VPNs in on their devices so they could circumvent the intranet. It’s a constant war.
“They’re all like little proto-hackers, looking for ways to get around things.”
McKenna was pleased his daughter’s school has restrictions on phone use and said it made a big difference to her education.
But he said some kids will always have work-arounds to use their phones.
“They will find their way around anything, like a prison camp they’re trying to dig their way out of.
“We had examples of children that were buying $20 burner phones and handing those in.”
Wellington East Girls’ College parent Jane said the school has recently restricted Wi-Fi access during school hours.
An email sent to parents said: “After reviewing our network performance, we found that a significant portion, between 50 per cent and 70 per cent, of our Wi-Fi capacity is being used by students on their cellphones for non-learning related activities.”
It was good that students were less distracted in class, Jane said.
On National’s phone ban policy, however, she said it might not work in practice when the device was used as a learning tool.
“I know for some subjects, my daughter may use her phone to take a photo of something and then upload it to her Chromebook, or record something for a language class.”
Some students have smart watches that allow them to receive messages at any time, she said.
Tackling the use of devices and the internet in school was challenging, she said.
“Some kids have unlimited data, for example, so the absence of Wi-Fi doesn’t actually make a difference to them.”
Some students at Wellington East agreed and have launched a petition to review the school’s internet restriction policy, stating it affects their ability to access the internet for school work, timetables and emails.
Parent Eileen was worried phone use meant children were missing out on face-to-face time at school.
“When it’s getting a little bit hard, they can turn to their phone, look as if they’re engaging with someone and that they’re not on their own.
“They’re better off to be forced to engage with the people they’re present with.”
In New South Wales, Australia, teachers were gearing up to implement a state government ban on phones at school in October.
The ban was an election commitment by now Premier Chris Minns, who wants to improve children’s learning.
New South Wales Secondary Principals’ Council president Craig Petersen said for over a decade, the council’s position has been that phone bans should be up to individual schools.
But then, like what was happening here, the decision became political.
Which was why some principals were nervous about the change, he said.
“Primarily, they’re concerned about behaviour issues that may arise when a teacher tries to enforce the ban.”
They were also worried about students working out ways to subvert initiatives to keep the ban in place, he said.
But he said the response so far from parents and teachers had been positive.
Back in the Wairarapa, McKenna said he did not like the idea of the Government mandating a complete ban in schools.
He thought it was going to be tough on teachers.
“It’s hard enough to get them to tuck their shirts in, let alone going through their bags to check for contraband phones.”
Decisions on phones should be left up to schools and parents, he said.