The head of a reputed boarding school has said that teenagers should be prevented from having mobile phones in school as their brain is not mature enough to use self-control.
According to Lisa Kerr of Gordonstoun School in Scotland, students should be taught how to control technology through a digital detox, not being left to decide for themselves — including Prince Philip and Prince Charles Had participated.
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Another prominent headmaster suggested after his remarks that schools could not be “Luddite” about mobile phones, arguing that they should not be “monstrous” as they might be useful in the classroom.
£ 16,400-a-year Portsmouth High School head and new president of the Girls Schools Association, Jane Prescott, said the banning of phones meant only youth used them in places where they could not be monitored.
But this comment has sparked a fierce debate among school leaders across the country, who believe that a ban on mobile phones is needed.
Ms Kerr, principal of £ 61,250 a year at Gordonstone, where students are not allowed to use their phones until the end of lessons and activities, said: “Teenage brains are not adequately developing the necessary self-control exercises, So adults in their lives need to set boundaries.
She added: “Just as you won’t leave sweet bowls and expect children to eat sensibly, we need to help our students control technology rather than control it.
Meanwhile, head of London’s Michaela Community School, Katherine Birbal Singh, has banned mobile phones, accusing private schools of not understanding the issues facing state schools.
Ms Birbal Singh, whose state school has been described as “the strictest in the country”, told the Independent: “I think it is hazardous when people who have extensive enough experience of harm to children in the inner city No, they make such comments.
“If you sit next to your child every time they use a smartphone, or have a shared Facebook account with them, it’s a different matter. Perhaps private school children have undeserved use of the Internet. Can cope with the world. If they come home and their parents are with them, sat around the dinner table, talking about the politics of the day and they use their screens C monitor, so be it.
“But this is not what happens to children in the inner city. Their lives are threatened, and I don’t understand why anyone would want to encourage children to use smartphones.”
Arguments encourage parents to listen to their children at the end of the day, after the decision by St. Peter’s CE Primary School in Leh, near Wigan, to create a mobile-free playground.
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