The government of Saskatchewan is clamping down on cellphone usage in schools, joining a growing list of provinces placing restrictions on devices in the classroom.
Premier Scott Moe’s government announced that they would be banning K-12 students from using cellphones during class time in schools starting in the 2024-25 school year.
In a video posted to social media, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said that the province has received overwhelming support from parents and teachers for a school cellphone ban.
“Over the past number of months 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,” said Cockrill.
The province is only making limited exceptions for students who need to use their cellphones to accommodate medical or special learning needs.
The Moe government is delegating the responsibility of drafting enforcement procedures for the cellphone ban to school boards, who will ensure their respective schools are observing the policy. School boards are also instructed to draft plans to allow parents to get in contact with their child in case of an emergency.
Minister Cockrill touted the government’s “back-to-basics” approach to education.
“Getting back to basics by limiting cellphones in our classrooms will help our students focus and ensure they are well equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in school, succeed in life, and to reach their full potential,” said Cockrill.
The Saskatchewan NDP’s education critic Matt Love said that the government should be focusing on bigger issues facing the province’s education system, namely funding for the education system.
“Cellphones have certainly become a distraction in classrooms, but cellphones are not the number one issue in Saskatchewan schools — it’s lack of funding,” said Love.
“Saskatchewan used to have the best funded schools in the country but under Scott Moe, we’re now last. It’s time to properly fund our classrooms and get Saskatchewan out of last place in education.”
While specific policies vary from province to province, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia have also limited student cellphone usage in schools.
Provinces like Ontario have instituted a cell phone ban that gives a great deal of discretion to teachers to enforce such a ban, while New Brunswick’s policy requires students to place their phones in a designated area of the classroom on silent.
In a comment to True North, Paige MacPherson, Associate Director of Education Policy for the Fraser Institute said that Saskatchewan’s ban is a good first step towards improving student achievement.
“Saskatchewan’s policy appears to be a positive step forward. A provincewide ban empowers teachers to impose the policy in their classrooms without constantly having to monitor and nag students — provided students need to lock their phones away during this time, rather than keep them buzzing in their pockets or desks,” said MacPherson.
MacPherson said that the Moe government could improve their cellphone policy by making the restrictions against cellphones more stringent.
“Leading researchers on this issue like Jonathan Haidt say that smartphone bans for the entire school day rather than just during classroom time make for better policy,” said MacPherson.
“This is because the presence of smartphones during the school day creates such anxiety in youth, with deleterious effects on mental health and cyber bullying that creates distraction which bleeds into classroom time. Leaving the door open for exceptions for learning purposes can be reasonable but in grades 9-12, could also be abused, so should be used mindfully.”
According to her, an ideal cellphone ban would be uniform and require students to lock their cellphones away in their lockers or in lockable pouches where they will not be a distraction.
“PISA research shows that smartphone distraction in classrooms, whether from a child’s own phone or one of their classmates’ phones, significantly decreases math scores in particular, and creates anxiety in young people. It’s these reasons that a uniform ban with almost no exceptions (aside from medical needs like monitoring blood sugar) is the best policy in K-12 government public schools.”