Political Opinion: School should be for learning, not scrolling

Monthly column by Alex Mayer, MP for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard

Today’s phones are a remarkable invention. We can make calls alongside having an atlas, encyclopaedia, calculator, torch, alarm clock, entertainment unit, travel agency, bank branch, and more, all in one. It’s amazing, even twenty years ago that would have sounded like science fiction.

But there’s a time and a place for phones. And that place isn’t school.

That’s why I’m pleased the Labour Government has announced tougher rules to make our schools genuinely phone-free.

Schools already have restrictions on mobile phone use. But there’s a problem. A phone switched off in a blazer pocket or tucked away in a school bag is still a temptation.

The figures suggest the current approach isn’t working well enough.

Surveys show only 16% of secondary school pupils say their school’s phone rules are followed all the time.

In schools where pupils can keep phones in their bags or blazers, just 20% of head teachers report consistent compliance. That rises to 74% where phones must be handed in.

So, from September 2027 all schools will be expected to make sure children can’t physically access phones throughout the school day. Incidentally that’s the same rule as for MPs visiting Downing Street - hand in your phone at the door!

At school it could mean collecting in phones in the morning or using lockers or lockable pouches.

This isn’t about stopping children taking phones to school. I understand why some parents want their children to have a phone for the journey to school and home again, especially for longer trips. That’s what you told me in the survey I ran earlier in the year.

This is about what happens between the school gates opening and closing.

I think we all agree that teachers should be teaching, not policing phones hidden under desks, or patrolling the toilets in search of screens. Children should be concentrating on lessons, not worrying about the latest notification.

Again and again when I talk to young people about spending more time offline, they tell me what they’d do instead.

Phone-free schools will encourage children to be active at break times, spend time talking face to face and build stronger friendships in the real world.

A school day without phones isn’t about taking something away. It’s about giving children something back.