Does your child need a mobile phone at school?

Kampala

And so it is that a parent, suspended from school for using a mobile phone 15 years ago, may now have to contend with funding such items on their child’s school budget as airtime, since the government has directed schools to stop banning students from possessing mobile phones on campus.

A prospect then takes shape, of a geography lesson in a Senior Three classroom somewhere in the countryside where instead of an atlas, the teacher asks the class to refer to the Google Maps app on their cell phone for an analysis of the Great Rift Valley.

Could that be the all-tech-survey future quickly coming our way, starting with the unprecedented legalisation of cell phones in school? Though the future remains to be seen, experts and concerned parties feel that the government’s directive could be a little rushed for our circumstances.

The prevailing arguments are that the country is unready. Ms Margaret Namubiru Rwabushaija, the national chairperson of the Uganda National Teachers’ Union, says the government rushed in making the directive, because it did not consult teachers who are an important stakeholder in education.

“There are better ways of handling problems in school and better ways of seeking solutions to school problems than by issuing directives,” she says, adding, “If students really need to make a phone call at school, (which would thus need to be an emergency), then call boxes can serve the purpose just fine.”

The Rev Moses Tindyebwa, the executive director at Global Education and Consultancy Services, says although there are advantages to gain from a student possessing a phone at school – like having quick access to current information on the internet – the government’s directive is not a very wise idea.

“It can be very dangerous because it can distract a student’s attention from study,” Rev Tindyebwa says.
“Students can easily use phones to misbehave, for example to coordinate strikes. Because phones and airtime are costly, it could prompt students to turn into thieves, either to steal money for airtime, or the phones themselves,” he adds.

Theft is not all the vice that phones will spread. Promiscuity, either among students, or even between students and people outside school, could also blossom as a result, considering that secondary school is where puberty is at its peak.

There are likely to be uncomfortable moments in class where a teacher walks in with a cheap, plastic cell-phone, while their students carry expensive smart phones, and both the teacher’s respect and their confidence, become collateral damage in a show-off-war, Rev Tindyebwa says.

In agreement with Ms Rwabushaija, the cleric says phones fuel examination malpractice. This could be either in the form of searching the internet for answers in the examination room or examination leakages before a given paper.

Mr Frederick Matsiko, a real estate entrepreneur and father to a son in S6, tries to strike a balance. He says he would love his son to have a phone at school to contact him in case of any problem. “Schools may register every student’s telephone. Or the teachers may keep the phones for the students, but it is good for a parent if a child can reach them when they have a problem,” Mr Matsiko says.

The cell phone is education instructional resource, according to Dr Yusuf Nsubuga, the director basic and secondary education. But it is also a source of evil, where internet can expose a student to vices like pornography, Rev Tindyebwa says. The allure of high school education being driven by high-tech innovations like cell phones does have appeal, and maybe one day it will be impossible to complete Secondary education without a smart phone. But the potential for a backlash if phones are legalised in school cannot be ignored either.

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