Badly behaved pupils won’t switch off in class, but is banning phones the solution?

Two KwaZulu-Natal school principals this week begged parents to enforce school rules regarding cellphones and discipline or face the consequences.

This after two fiery incidents involving cellphones in the province this month.

Ndengetho High School pupils in Durban allegedly set fire to several classrooms after police seized about 400 phones during a spot search, while a 17-year-old Pietermaritzburg boy was arrested for torching a Northbury Park Secondary School teacher’s car after his cellphone was confiscated.

At a meeting on Wednesday, Northbury principal Loraine Sha told parents their children would be sent home if a device was found on them or fined R300 if their phones passed through newly installed metal detectors.

“No learner will be allowed onto the school premises with a cellphone. Learners with cellphones will be turned away at the gate and asked to return home. We are here to teach and learn.”

Sha said the teacher whose car was torched was distraught and not back at school.

“This (incident) cuts deep because one of our own has done this to us. It was not an outsider. How do we return to class? How do we face our learners?"

John Ross College in Richards Bay experienced “extra discipline problems” with Grade 8 and 9 pupils, while those in grades 10 and 11 were bunking classes.

“I have been a teacher for 38 years and I’m alarmed at how some children behave and speak to teachers. It has to stop,” said principal Janienne King in a stern letter to parents on the school’s official Facebook page.

"That is why I’m writing to you now. All my HODs teach and do discipline, and they are overwhelmed. Telling us you can’t control the child at home either is your responsibility. Schools are not babysitting institutions, but learning institutions.” 

King said the heads of department were in constant contact with parents and she was signing warning letters daily.

She said badly behaved pupils would not be allowed to complete their schooling at John Ross.

South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said the parents of pupils at both schools would have accepted the cellphone policy. Therefore, only ill-discipline was behind the acts.

“Every school has its own policy. It is not imposed by teachers. Parents participate in the formulation of these policies via the school governing body (SGB) and then they accept that their child would not have a cellphone in class. Some schools outright ban a phone, while others allow pupils to bring the phone to school to communicate with a parent after lessons. But this is not happening,” he said.

Instead, pupils are using their phones to cyber bully classmates, violate the privacy of others, record pranks on teachers and even keep in touch with drug dealers, Maluleke added.

“Some pupils are out of control. It is up to the parents to ensure their child is following the school’s phone policy.”

Fedsas, representing school governing bodies, does not promote a cellphones ban or support the illegal confiscation of cellphones. 

“Our learners experience their digital lives as real as their physical lives and digital citizenship is part of their daily lives. Schools should tap into that, but as we do in ‘real life’, we need to guide them on the proper use of the devices, the dangers involved, good practices and responsible use,” said the organisation’s CEO, Dr Jaco Deacon.

Two digital parenting experts, social media lawyer Sarah Hoffman and clinical psychologist Pam Tudin, said rather than confiscating phones as a reactive management tool, schools should promote the idea that phones are handed in as pupils arrive at school, with them returned when the school day ends. 

“In this way everyone is treated equally, no one is tempted to act out with their phones, and attention and focus for the academic day are optimised.”

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