Advantage and disadvantage allowing mobile phones to be brought to school

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In more recent times, the same anxiety greeted the advent of computers, especially the internet. Today, the internet has become an essential tool and we cannot imagine a life without it. Like the computer, the mobile phone has many advantages, while an abuse of it can have disastrous results. Mobile phones are useful tools of communication. Parents and children can keep in touch with each other and any last minute change of plans can be conveyed easily without any trouble either party. Some children however, cite this as loss of privacy as parents will have 24 hours access to their children.

Parents say mobile phone is more than a convenience – it is an essential item that can function as a tracker device. With it they can monitor their children and check o their whereabouts via satellite. Thus, wherever they are, parent can ensure the safety of their children and avoid incidents like kidnapping, rape and other such crimes.

Education Ministry officials, school authorities and many parents believe that allowing mobile phones in schools would only widen the disparity between the haves and the have-nots among students. Mobile phone come in variety of shapes, colours and functions: from generic ones to highly sophisticated smartphones. Not every child in school comes from middle or upper class families that can afford to buy each child mobile phones. The self-esteem of children who do not own a mobile phone or who possess a basic one will be affected.

Low self-esteem among students would causes rift among children. Cliques, jealousy and rivalry would result. This unhealthy situation should not be nurtured in a school. Instead, the school environment should promote equal opportunities and equal treatment.

Another reason for the strong outcry against students to bring mobile phones to school is the distraction is poses. SMS text, games and ringing tones are some of the distractors that take the students’ attention away from the lesson. Children, being children, will not a able to resist the temptation of answering calls and sending messages when they should be listening to the teacher or completing their written work. Even if the school authorities ban the use of mobile phones during classes, the games available on the phone is something the students would resort to classes to overcome boredom.

Apart from diverting students’ attention, the mobile phone can be threaten the validity of school examinations. Students may cheat during examination via text message. Information or answers can be passed from one student to the next while examiners may be totally oblivious of the heating that happens.

Finally, even adults find it hard to exercise social etiquette in the use of mobile phones, therefore children cannot be expected to do any better. Despite explicit message in movie theaters, at meetings and at formal meetings, we still hear phones ringing away. School administrator and discipline teachers would find it difficult to effectively prohibit students from using their phones during lessons.

If the Ministry of Education lifts ban on mobile phones, schools may come up with new rules or guidelines to control the use of the mobile phone. Inevitably, teachers will be burdened with the task of monitoring ile phone use and misuse of the mobile phone. All this is additional stress for teachers who are already loaded with heavy responsibility.

In short, undeniable mobile phones bring lot of conveniences. However, allowing young students to bring mobile phones is still unnecessary. For them, mobile phones are just mainly entertainment and showing-off tools. Perhaps authorities can make a slight change on the rule, for example merely allowing students of secondary schools to bring mobile phones, instead of including the primary schools students.