Should Mobile Phones Be Banned in Schools?

There is a lot to admire about the new technology that has been produced and is at our disposal to improve our day-to-day lives; one of the most important being the mobile phone. Before this hand-held device came along we were restricted to making important calls when we were out from telephone boxes, or just waiting until we got home to use our phones there. How things have changed...

In 1973 the first phonecall from a mobile phone was made by Dr Martin Cooper, who worked for Motorola and in 1985, Vodaphone made the first truly portable phone for the UK. However, it wasn't until the 1990s that the mobile phone craze began to take hold of the public, and it was not long after this that a mobile phone became a necessity. I have just described the mobile phone as necessary, but is it really? Of course they are brilliant to be in contact with people, wherever you are and whenever you want to, but does that qualify as a necessity? Are the new, fantastic advances of the internet on a mobile a necessity. When people first started buying them, they were for emergencies; this reasoning has no doubt fallen by the wayside. Mobiles are now seen as a fashion accessory and a power status. Everyone needs to have an up-to-date phone to play games on and talk on Facebook while they're out and about. Especially for teenagers, they are one of the biggest distractions.

Having observed the recent documentaries that Channel 4 has produced on the dropouts at school there is one obvious attribute of their personality that is standing in the way of their success: concentration. Is technology producing a generation that is unable to focus for sustained periods of time? Constantly these children are looking at their phones probably on the internet or texting; and most likely texting each other because they don't pay the bill and have no concept of responsibility. Even in my university lectures, professers have had to stop their teaching to ask for people to stop texting, and I have heard similar from friends. So, those at the highest level still fall short on the concentration levels, and I have to admit that on occassion, when I feel my phone vibrate I take it out, and if necessary, reply. Here is the problem, but what is the solution.

Personally, I see no need for children to be taking their mobiles into school, apart from emergencies, which is probably why they're supposed to have the phone in the first place. Indeed, it would seem that the solution to such a problem would be to take the phones off the pupils at the beginning of a lesson and give them back at the end. Stricter punishments should be administered for texting or playing with phones in lessons. From the current crop of school kids teachers will receive grief; but, if it is established that there is a zero tolerance on mobile phones in a school, the children entering it in the successive years will have prior knowledge, therefore producing less resistant to what is now a radical and 'out of order' suggestion.

Students should have mobiles on them for emergencies, and if they want them, should be able to have it during break and lunch times: periods of the day that do not affect their education. It is clear that technology seems to be building a future workforce that will not be able to concentrate on their jobs. So what are we going to do about it?