In what the Manitoba government views as a key move toward clearing classrooms of major distractions, Premier Wab Kinew announced that there will be a provincewide ban on cell phones in schools beginning this coming fall. The ban will apply to students from kindergarten through Grade 8; for high school students, however, there will be more nuanced restrictions.
“Provincewide, the minister of education is sending out a letter today to all of the divisions saying no phones in school, no phones at all in K-8,” Kinew told 680 CJOB’s The Start in an interview. However, children in high school will be taught to use the gadgets responsibly. “Having TikTok on in math class is not helping you, and it’s not helping the student beside you,” Kinew underscored the matter of other distractions ensuing from unrestricted cellphone use.
Individual school divisions will have discretion on how to enforce the ban, including whether to force students to leave their phones in lockers at the principal’s office, or on their teacher’s desk. Banned uses would be medical and educational ones.
It is not until now, after Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia had instituted similar bans, that the westernmost province is doing the same. The changes were made in consultation with the stakeholders in updating provincial guidelines to fall in line with shifting patterns of technology use.
Evan Janzen Roth, a math teacher at Collège Sturgeon Heights Collegiate in Winnipeg, said he had a good experience with a similar policy at his school last year. “Students could use cellphones on their breaks. I have noticed that with these restrictions in place when students would finish work or assessments early, it has allowed them to read more books or engage more with their peers and teachers,” Roth said.
The move has been lauded by many quarters, including the Opposition Progressive Conservatives, who have been pushing for a blanket provincewide ban for years. PC education critic Grant Jackson said teachers need up-front policies so they are not left to police the devices by themselves in the classroom. “I don’t think we’re setting our students up for success by allowing eight- and nine-year-olds to police themselves on their device use,” Jackson remarked.
Some divisions within these schools in Manitoba have already implemented some measures aimed at reducing the amount of time spent on the screen. Some have already restricted computer use to, for instance, an hour in a day for elementary and middle school students. “We focus on maintaining literacy on computers so that kids are up to par. But is it right to have them up to par for five hours in front of a screen all day? We don’t think so,” said division superintendent Alain Laberge.
A pilot project operated in the Hanover School Division last year has since been the basis for policy division-wide, from kindergarten to Grade 8, assistant superintendent Colin Campbell says. The change was proven effective by gains in positive student behaviors and in-office referrals due to the misuse of technology.
As Manitoba prepares to implement these bans, the furthering of an overall goal has become clear – to create more focused and more enticing learning environments for the students of the province.