The government says it will end classroom distraction — but critics say the cellphone “ban” itself is a distraction, and not much different from policies schools already have in place.

Although the provincial ban is scheduled to come into effect on Monday, many say it will be “business as usual.”

“It isn’t really (a ban),” said union president Harvey Bischof of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. Rather, he calls it “a distraction from things that are occurring in the education system resulting from Ford’s cuts.”

“It implies that cellphones were being allowed in class for non-curricular uses … and that’s absurd,” he told the Star. “Nothing will change under this so-called ban … It’s business as usual on Monday.”

During last year’s provincial election, Doug Ford’s platform included a cellphone ban — a stance that later found strong support among parents during province-wide consultations.

The cellphone ban is just one of many changes introduced by the Ford government to Ontario classrooms.

Speaking with the Star, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said, “The aim of the ban, and the objective I think it will deliver, is a greater focus on the classroom for students that increasingly face distractions.”

“Technology can be and should be a positive component of learning in the 21st Century,” he said Thursday. “However, if it’s not instruction-based, if it’s not guided by a teacher for academic achievement or scholastic purposes, it shouldn’t be in the class.”

“The aim as of Monday is to reset the culture in schools where kids are focusing on their educator, on the subject material, on retaining that knowledge and applying it in their daily lives — and less so on Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat and other platforms that are simply not conducive to learning.”

He called it “a positive step. We campaigned on it, parents gave us a mandate in the consultation, they wanted that done. We’ve given the right period of time for boards to get this up to speed and it sounds like they are ready to go Monday.”

In late August, the province issued a directive for school boards to update their codes of conduct to ensure cellphones in class are only used for educational purposes as directed by an educator, for health and medical purposes and to support special education needs. But many already had similar policies in place — and in some cases they’ve taken what was common practice and formalized it into a policy.

Liz Stuart, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, says the union has long advocated that decisions around phones in the class for educational purposes be left to the discretion of teachers to determine when and how students should access them.

“This was the practice before the government engaged in so-called consultations on the issue, and it essentially remains the practice now,” she said. “This is another example of the Ford government creating unnecessary noise and confusion around an issue.”

Cathy Abraham, president of Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, doesn’t expect much will change in the classroom. She says boards should make their own decisions that allow individual teachers to make age-appropriate classroom decisions about technology use.

“Students need to be discerning digital citizens and opportunities should be provided within the curriculum to allow students to safely explore various uses and risks of technology in an intentionally guided and supportive environment,” said Abraham.

Sally Meseret, president of the Ontario Student Trustees Association and a Grade 12 student at Whitby’s Donald A. Wilson Secondary School, said, “(students) recognize they are already not allowed to just whip out their cellphones whenever they want.”

Meseret said teachers enforce the rules differently, with some requesting students leave phones in a bin at the front of the class, put them in clear boxes on their desks or leave them in a cubbyhole at the rear of the class, particularly during tests. In cases where students abuse cellphone use, after being repeatedly told not to use their device, some teachers take their phones to the school office to be retrieved by the parents.

She said the cellphone ban isn’t a big discussion amongst students — unlike other Ford government initiatives, such as the proposed four mandatory online high school courses needed to graduate starting next year.

Similarly, Ivy Deng, a student trustee with the Toronto District School Board, said “kids aren’t really saying anything.”

“Some people feel like the government is just doing something to do something because from what we know, it doesn’t change much,” said Deng, a Grade 12 student at Earl Haig Secondary School.

At Queen’s Park, opposition critics questioned the need for the cellphone rules.

“The cellphone ban never made any sense to me,” said Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, adding enforcement of the rules is “just one more thing to put on the backs of teachers” — and comes at a time when the government is cutting back on the number of educators and boosting class sizes.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said “educators already have a handle on making their classroom work. What’s the enforcement that’s not already there?”

Overall, he said the so-called ban is “more hype than substance — more sizzle than steak.”

In mid-October, Premier Ford posted a video of himself walking with a group of schoolchildren, in which he is talking about cellphones.

Ford, carrying a goalie net and surrounded by kids holding basketballs or hockey sticks, was outside Lillian Berg Public School in Vermilion Bay in the Kenora area.

“You guys shouldn’t be on the phones in class. You should be learning,” Ford told them. “You can have the phones after.”

Read more about: