Educators, students share mixed reviews of incoming Sask. cellphone use ban
Experts, teacher question who province consulted before developing policy
Students, teachers and experts have mixed reviews on whether a cellphone use ban in K-12 schools is the right move — but most wonder if it's government legislating something that wasn't really an issue.
On Tuesday, the provincial government announced a cellphone use ban during classtime for all kindergarten to Grade 12 school classrooms starting in the coming school year — an attempt to stifle the contention for students' attention.
The majority of Canadian provinces have announced policies for the coming year for some or all grades.
In a video statement posted to Facebook, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill announced the policy, saying "we have heard loud and clear from parents, teachers and students that cellphones in classrooms are distracting our kids from learning and making teaching more difficult for our educators."
He says there are limited exceptions that will allow some student cellphone use in class, including medical issues.
Joanne Feeley — a 29-year teacher living in Assiniboia, Sask., located about 135 kilometres southwest of Regina — first heard about the change from watching Cockrill's announcement video.
Feeley says she is curious about why Cockrill is pursuing the ban over other more significant issues.
"I have just been wondering how he has not heard loud and clear from parents, teachers and students about the needs for human resources in our school buildings, throughout the last two years especially," she told the CBC on Thursday.
"It did feel like it could be a little tone deaf."
Feeley is not opposed to the ban — and already had her own policies in her classroom to limit phone distractions — but she finds the issues of class composition and complexity that were echoed by teachers at picket lines during stalled contract negotiations between the province and the teachers' union seemed not to reach Cockrill's ears.
Experts weigh in on cellphone-use ban
When Marc Spooner, an education professor at the University of Regina, first heard about the announcement, he considered the policy a way to avoid making significant change while appearing to support teachers after "vilifying" them during negotiations.
Those talks ended in a stalemate and both parties agreeing to binding arbitration. The arbitration hearing is set for December 16 to 20 in Saskatoon.
Spooner doesn't believe there will be any noticeable changes to classrooms, what with many teachers and school boards already having cellphone-use policies in place.
He disagrees with politicians outside of schools making changes to what happens inside classrooms.
Kyle Robinson, an assistant professor of inclusive education at the U of R says students need to learn how to live in the real world as well as study practical subjects. Taking away a common potential distraction now won't help them manage it in the future, he said.
He also finds cellphones a useful tool for students, including for those who can find an app for text-to-speech, rather than the school having to buy extra tech or equipment.
"Do we just make it a rule that students with disabilities can now have their phone and no one else can? And it starts to turn into that slippery slope," he said.
Robinson expects there are other ways to limit distractions in the classroom and questioned the amount of consultation that went into the decision.
Sask. school boards don't see cellphone use ban as 'high priority'
Education Minister Cockrill could not put a number to the amount of people involved in consultations, but said he's spoken with teachers and parents around Saskatchewan who said cellphone use was a concern.
He said the province consulted the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) in the spring.
SSBA president Jaimie Smith-Windsor said it wasn't a robust consultation between the government and the association. She noted that school boards had mixed responses to the ban but it wasn't considered a "high priority," when compared with issues like funding or developing programs like all-day, every day kindergarten.
The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation was not consulted about the change prior to its announcement, but is not in favour of it, according to its president Samantha Becotte.
Cockrill said he's aware that cellphone policies are already commonplace among some schools and classrooms but the new directive will provide a consistent approach, though teachers will work out enforcement measures with school administrators. He said the province will evaluate its effectiveness throughout the year and into the next school year.
"From the teachers that I heard from directly on this … it's really hard to enforce a rule when another teacher down the hall or another teacher next door to you isn't enforcing the same rule," Cockrill said.
"Cellphones, they cause distraction; I think cellphones have had a massively negative impact on the mental health of our young people."
Eva Tsaprailis, a Grade 10 student in the village of Bjorkdale, Sask., said the ban is a mixed bag. It's good, she said, because some people use cellphones irresponsibly. And it's also bad because she listens to music to help her focus while working on assignments.
Lyndsay Charko, a Grade 11 student in Carrot River, Sask., expects she's in the minority of students who are in favour of the ban because she finds people use phones to cheat. On the other hand, she thinks they're valuable in an emergency or when people, like she and Tsaprailis, find solace in music.
Francis Aswit, a Grade 12 student at Riffel High School, said he disagrees with the cellphone ban, but expects it will be helpful for some and ineffective for others.
Aswit said some students are likely to hand teachers a second so-called dummy phone and continue to secretly use their primary device in class.
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