Renewed call to keep ban on cellphones

The Barbados National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (BNCPTA) is reiterating its call for the ban on cellphones in schools across this country to be upheld, at least for the time being.

President of the BNCPTA, Shone Gibbs made this position clear in a recent interview with The Barbados Advocate, as he reflected on the violence and indiscipline in the school setting, which have been centre stage in recent times as a result of videos of incidents being captured on cell phones and circulated via social media. His comments come as the Ministry of Education prepares to allow cell phones in schools from September.

But, the BNCPTA head explained that the association is not opposed to the use of technology in schools in general, but think that if cell phones are officially allowed, they may act as a medium to further promote a problem that needs to be urgently tackled.

“We support of the use of technology in schools, as a matter of fact we would like to see more funds lent to technology within the classroom by way of teaching aids and learning aids for both teachers and students. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I’m going to reiterate, that the position on cell phones in schools at this time, we believe that it should be put on pause because we have too many issues to be addressed and we need to look at discipline holistically before we create another avenue for indiscipline,” he said.

The BNCPTA President added, “We need to be moving towards changing a culture of behaviour so that our children would be more responsible when we get to the stage that we say ‘well look you can use cellphones in schools’, and right now we are not there,” he said.

Gibbs further made his argument, contending that Barbados is not yet there as a society, given the fact that there are too many adults who have been very irresponsible with the use of cell phones. With that in mind, he said that in respect of education, cell phones should remain out of schools until persons can really utilise that technology for benefit more than harm. (JRT)