Mobile phones and other personal communication devices like smart watches will be banned from ACT public schools in 2024.
Key points:
- Individual schools will decide how to implement the ban next year
- A transition period will be in effect for Term 1, 2024
- There will be exemptions for students with caring responsibilities or medical circumstances
From Term 1 next year, students in Preschool up to Year 10 will not be able to use their mobile phone, smart watch or any other personal communication devices at school.
Following a public consultation period, the ACT government announced the policy today, bringing Canberra schools into step with other jurisdictions in the country.
“It was pretty overwhelmingly clear that everybody had decided that now was the time that we needed to remove phones from classrooms,” ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry told ABC Radio Canberra.
“Over the last couple of months, we had 3,200 people contribute [to the consultation], which included students, parents and carers, school staff, [Education] Directorate employees, and just general members of the ACT community.
“We asked them to consider what option would they prefer as far as devices and phones being allowed in schools, and how they should be managed.
The new policy applies to all ACT public school students and their “Personal Communication Devices”, which includes mobile phones and any other handheld or wearable devices like smart watches. However, Chromebooks are excluded from the policy.
The ACT government is hopeful the policy will limit “sources of distraction” and improve digital literacy skills for students.
Education Minister Yvette Berry says there was overwhelming public support for a mobile phone ban in schools. “This is an issue that is more broadly felt in the community, about the inappropriate use of phones and communication devices,” Ms Berry said.
“Our schools are just a mirror of what happens more broadly in our community. But if we can work towards making sure that our students are good digital citizens, perhaps that can be passed on and learned from … past the school gates when they leave their school communities.”
From Term 1 2024, public school students from Preschool to Year 10:
- will not be able to use or access personal communications devices at school, including recess and lunch, unless the school principal has approved a formal and specific exemption;
- will not be able to use or access personal communications devices at school-authorised events, such as camps and excursions; and
- are strongly encouraged not to bring their personal communications to school.
The policy does not apply to activities not managed or supervised by the school, such as before and after-school care (OSHC), or external providers using a school site for out-of-hours activities.
Students who require access to a personal communications device immediately before or after school will be permitted to do so, but how these devices are stored during the school day will be up to individual schools.
“Some schools in the ACT have piloted using bags you can put phones in at the start of the school day,” Ms Berry said.
“Some other schools might require that students keep them in places outside of their contact.
“We won’t be searching children’s bags, that’s probably a step too far. But what we will be doing is making sure the policy is clearly understood by students and families, and school staff.”
Students in college — that’s Years 11 and 12 in the ACT — will be permitted to have personal communication devices during school hours and at school events, but the devices “must be silenced and put away” during class time — meaning the device cannot be “on a student’s person, on the student’s desk or in the student’s work area”.
College students will also not be permitted to connect to their device via physical wires, wireless tethering, Bluetooth or hotspot during class times.
College students will be permitted to use their devices at other times, such as during recess or lunch.
Exemptions to the policy can approved by the school principal, or by a teacher, if a personal communications device is required explicitly to support a lesson.
The Education Directorate indicated that school-hour exemptions could be granted for students under certain circumstances, including:
- students who need their device to manage or monitor a medical condition; and
- students who need to meet caring or family responsibilities.
Exemptions will be granted on a case-by-case basis by school principals, and will have to be accompanied by “supporting evidence”, such as a statement from a GP.
“We do need those exemptions for particular students,” Veronica Elliott, executive officer for the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Association, said.
