Experts argue that banning cell phones in schools without listening to students is not a solution – Society

The ban on cell phones in schools without listening to students is criticized by some experts, who argue that young people can help find the best solutions to keep them connected both to school and to the internet.

Speaking to the Lusa agency regarding the Digital Wellbeing Week, which starts on Monday, the specialist in the use of information technologies by children and young people and founder of the MiudosSegurosNa.Net project, Tito de Morais, considered that the best It is always listening to young people first, before making any decision, even to hold them accountable and make them comply with the decision.

Also Cristiane Miranda, who has more than 20 years of experience in this area and is a mentor for the Teen On Top — Coaching for Young People project, argues: “we think that [proibir] is not the best solution.”

“It is not the best solution to say that the State has to come and regulate and simply ban the use of cell phones in schools”, said the expert, adding: “when we go to schools and talk to students, they have a lot to say and have solutions.”

And he explains: “Each school is sovereign to decide what it should do, but listening to everyone involved, from teachers, teaching staff, non-teaching staff and the students themselves and seeing what the best solutions are.”

The specialist also recounted one of the conversations with one of the young people from a school that the project visited. “We asked if it should be banned and the young man replied: ‘it depends on the weather. When it’s sunny, we can be outside, run, play ball and do other things, but when it rains we have to stay inside the pavilion and we can’t talk, we have to sit here and no one lets us do anything and then we have to use our cell phones'”.

He insists that, when young people are involved in the solution, “they accept it better and join in to fulfill it”.

Furthermore, he states, “if we just prohibit them we also don’t teach them how to use these technologies well.”

This topic will be the subject of discussion at the international conference taking place on the 3rd and 4th of May at the Cupertino de Miranda Foundation (Porto), as part of the Digital Wellbeing Week (https://www.bemestardigital.pt).

The debate on the use of cell phones in schools will be attended by representatives from the National Association of Directors of Groups and Public Schools (ANDAEP), the National Confederation of Parents’ Associations and the author of Mónica Pereira, author of a petition asking for the the end of cell phones in 5th and 6th year recess and which has already been signed by more than 22 thousand people.

A school in Lourosa, in Santa Maria da Feira, was the first in the country to ban the use of cell phones throughout the premises, seven years ago. Since then, the limitation has already been extended to others, such as, for example, the Escola Básica EB 2,3 General Serpa Pinto, in Cinfães, in the district of Viseu, the basic schools of Alto de Algés and Miraflores, both in Oeiras, the Gil Vicente (Lisbon) and Infanta D. Mafalda (Gondomar) school groups, as well as the Almeirim (Santarém) school groups.

The controversy raised by the topic led the Ministry of Education to request, last year, an opinion from the Schools Council, which considered that the solution to respond to the negative impacts of the use of cell phones in school contexts does not involve prohibiting their use, but argued that the groups themselves should decide.

Despite the negative impacts and “complex issues of discipline, namely the inappropriate capture of images or cyberbullying” that arise with the widespread use of cell phones, especially from the 2nd cycle onwards, the directors emphasize that there are, on the other hand, , positive aspects.

In the classroom, they state, ‘smartphones’ can constitute “resources available to students and teachers to promote learning” and allow them to “enhance the development of essential skills in accordance with the Profile of Students Leaving Compulsory Schooling”.