Moalims

UK Ministers are moving on with their commitment to outlaw mobile phones in schools, and the Department for Education has released new guidelines to teachers about how to prevent students from using them in class. 

The non-statutory guidance gives headteachers instructions on how to forbid phone use not only during class but also during lunch and break times, according to The Standard.

It also recommends that staff could search learners and their bags for cell phones if needed, noting that “head teachers can and should identify cell phones and like devices as something that may be searched for in their school behaviour policy”.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, who first promised to propose rules banning mobile phone usage in schools at last October's Tory conference, praised the new guidelines as a major milestone.

At the time, the promise was viewed with suspicion, however, on Monday, a trade union called it a "non-policy for a non-problem."

Currently, it is up to individual heads in England to determine their own cell phone rules, including whether or not they should be outlawed.

In a foreword to the document, Keegan said it would provide “clarity and consistency” for teachers and that there is currently “a large variation in how different schools are managing the use of mobile phones”.

In a statement, she said: “Schools are places for children to learn and mobile phones are, at a minimum, an unwanted distraction in the classroom.

“We are giving our hard-working teachers the tools to take action to help improve behaviour and to allow them to do what they do best – teach,” she added.