‘Put Learners First, Tackle Classroom Disruption’: UNESCO Calls for Smartphone Ban in Schools – News18

A UN report recommended that smartphones should be banned from schools in order to put learners first and tackle classroom disruption. The report says this move could improve learning and help protect children from cyberbullying.

The UN’s education, science and culture agency, Unesco, said that there is evidence that excessive mobile phone use led to reduced educational performance and high levels of screen time impacted children’s emotional stability negatively.

The report highlighted that smartphones and artificial intelligence should be subservient to “human-centred vision” of education and should never replace face-to-face interaction with teachers.

Policymakers were warned that an embrace of digital technology without proper consideration of consequences could have negative effects and the positive impacts on learning outcomes may have been overstated.

“Not all change constitutes progress. Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done,” it concluded.

Policymakers were also urged to not neglect the “social dimension” of education and ensure students receive face-to-face teaching. “Those urging increasing individualisation may be missing the point of what education is about,” the report said.

“The digital revolution holds immeasurable potential but, just as warnings have been voiced for how it should be regulated in society, similar attention must be paid to the way it is used in education,” Audrey Azoulay, Unesco director general was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

“Its use must be for enhanced learning experiences and for the wellbeing of students and teachers, not to their detriment. Keep the needs of the learner first and support teachers. Online connections are no substitute for human interaction,” she further added.

The report also pointed out that there is very less robust research to demonstrate that digital technology inherently added value to education and pointing to evidence said that much of those were funded by private education companies trying to sell digital learning products.

It further said that the growing influence of these companies on education policies across the world was “a cause for concern”.

The report said that countries must ensure that they have clear objectives and principles which ensure that digital education is beneficial and avoids harm – both to individual students’ health and more widely to democracy and human rights.

It cited, based on large-scale international assessment data, that there was a “negative link” between excessive use of digital technology and student performance.

The report said that countries like China, which limited use of digital devices as teaching tools to 30% of all teaching time, are “waking up to the importance of putting learners first”.

Unesco estimates that one in six countries had banned smartphones in school and these nations include France and the Netherlands as well. “Students need to be able to concentrate and need to be given the opportunity to study well. Mobile phones are a disturbance, scientific research shows. We need to protect students against this,” Dutch education minister, Robbert Dijkgraaf, said earlier this month.