How Aussie Primary Schools Are Dealing with the Mobile Phone Ban

The mobile phone ban in primary schools should come as no surprise to parents, teachers and administrators alike. In a bid to improve the mental health of students, all Australian primary schools will be required to restrict all mobile phone use during school hours as of January 2019. Psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg, who led the review on children’s mobile phone use, assessed approximately 14,000 survey responses which has led to the decision.

“It’s all really about kids focusing on lessons, better socialising, reducing social media use and reducing online bullying and online image abuse,”

he told in an interview with 2GB. It is his belief that schools have a “duty of care” to protect their students from the risks phones pose to their mental health.

With the changes going ahead in primary schools, effectively now, it is likely that high schools will be set to follow. This begs the question: how will schools handle the new logistical challenge of removing phones from students, and keeping them out of reach throughout the school day? There are two main problems that school administrators and procurement teams need to consider during the application of this new regulation.

1 How do you ensure that children don’t just get sneakier with the phones?

Banning anything generally leads to a certain segment of the affected population just becoming sneakier. Prohibition lead to Moonshine. Banning texting while driving lead to drivers holding their phones in their laps. Children are notoriously clever and without accountability, will simply increase their stealthy approach to phone use.

Mobile Phone Lockers address this issue. With a 1 to 1 ratio of lockers to students, each locker number can be allocated to a specific student. If a phone is not present in the lockers, a quick check of an attendance record will highlight which individuals are likely to be secreting a phone on their person.

2 How do you  keep all the students phones under supervision?

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Telling students to keep their phones at home will result in a lot of phones being left on silent and in pockets. A vibrating phone with an incoming message is just as distracting to students as a ring tone is, so secure storage in a visible location within the school is paramount. A big box full of phones in the admin office is not going to cut it. The risk of theft, or claims of theft, are too great.

Mobile Phone Lockers are essential this as they create a divided and secure storage system that cannot easily be broken into by opportunistic students. If the lockers are wall mounted and installed in a high traffic, well monitored area, all the better.

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Plenty of schools already have orders underway for the new year. If you’re considering purchasing Mobile Phone Lockers in order to get your school compliant with the new legislation, whatever your needs get in touch with Hi Tech Lockers today for a free quote. We can even organise a site visit and measure to make the whole process easy for you.

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