Canadian School Boards Grapple with Implementing Cellphone Restrictions, Says Canadian School Boards Association President
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Loading... - Gisela Roth
- 28 Jun 2024
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As phone restrictions are introduced in various school divisions and provinces across Canada, educators face challenges in determining the best implementation strategies.
Alan Campbell, president of the Canadian School Boards Association, highlighted the variability in policy rollout across the country. "There's leeway for school divisions to go ahead and adopt different policies in this already, and then execute as best they can," Campbell told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg. He noted that even within divisions, policies might vary from one high school to another.
Campbell emphasized the critical role of parental support in the success of these policies. Educators are increasingly encountering issues related to technology use among younger students. Many elementary school students are arriving at school sleep-deprived due to excessive nighttime screen time, indicating that bans alone may not suffice.
“There’s a larger societal conversation that needs to happen, and parents need to get on board with this across the table to make meaningful changes and start minimizing some of these risks,” Campbell stressed. "Some children as young as eight or nine or ten are going to school without having slept because they’ve had complete unlimited access to their smartphones overnight."
Campbell's remarks underscore the importance of a collaborative approach involving educators, parents, and the broader community to effectively address the challenges posed by unrestricted smartphone use among students.
