province to restrict student cellphone use in saskatchewan classrooms
with some exceptions, "cellphones will not be permitted during class time" provincewide at the start of this school year, according to a government news release.
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minster of education jeremy cockrill stands at a media event for the site of a new school near harbour landing on tuesday, aug. 6, 2024 in regina. kayle neis
kayle neis
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regina leader-post
saskatchewan is following the pack as it moves to restrict the use of cellphones in kindergarten to grade 12 classrooms in the coming scholastic year.
the change make saskatchewan “the ninth” province to bring in such a policy, said minister of education jeremy cockrill at an unrelated event tuesday.
“it’s not like kids don’t have cellphones, but when we’re in school, when we’re in the classroom, we want that to be as productive a learning environment as possible.”
cockrill spoke from the future site of a joint-use school in regina’s harbour landing, which was announced in the 2020-21 budget and is set to be completed in 2027.
site servicing began tuesday, bringing a crowd of other education stakeholders, including chairperson for regina public schools sarah cummings truszkowski, and shauna weninger, a regina catholic schools board trustee. neither offered an “official position” on the cellphone restrictions announced earlier that morning.
“we have no idea what it entirely entails,” said weninger, though regina catholic does already have a policy in place regarding cellphone use in the classroom.
cummings truszkowski said she would like to wait for more details before commenting.
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as for what the policy looks like in practice, cockrill said that will be up to divisions, schools and classrooms ahead of school resuming. some classrooms already have policies in place around keeping phones at the front of the class in a basket or in a form of storage, he added.
“we’re not really surprised,” said president of the saskatchewan teachers’ federation (stf) samantha becotte.
she said the policy “comes across as a bit of a distraction” from issues like per-student funding, something the stf has remained focused on throughout negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement that was sent to binding arbitration in june.
the government says the new rule is a way to curb distractions posed by the devices when students should be learning. exemptions will be possible for “a specific instructional purpose” for students in grades 9 to 12, if sought by a teacher,” according to a government news release. and school division procedures will include exemptions for students that need use of a cellphone “as accommodations for medical or specific learning needs.”
while cockrill said the ministry flagged potential plans to the saskatchewan school boards association (ssba) “back in the spring,” ssba president jaimie smith-windsor said “it wasn’t high” on the radar.
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“it’s not what we would have called a robust consultation,” she said tuesday.
however, smith-windsor and becotte both said the policy was anticipated given what other provinces have done.
as for implementation, some questions remain.
who is responsible for the cellphone during class time, and “who’s liable for those devices?” wondered becotte.
quebec, ontario, b.c. and, most recently, alberta have either announced or brought in restrictions on cellphone usage during class time or within schools.
the government of alberta announced its plan to ban cellphones in k-12 classrooms in june. it had previously allowed school boards to establish their owns rules amid growing concern from teachers and parents. going forward, school boards will be able to decide how the new rules are implemented and enforced.
the alberta government said it surveyed more than 68,000 parents, teachers, students and principals about cellphone use in schools, and about 90 per cent said they had concerns and argued it should be limited.
“at the end of the day this about the feedback that we’ve received from parents and teachers,” cockrill said tuesday. but when asked, the minister was unable to provide figures with respect to the number of people surveyed in advance of the announcement. he added that the policy would be reviewed as it was rolled out, and in the coming years as needed.
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ndp education critic matt love said in a written statement that the government should focus priorities elsewhere.
“cellphones have certainly become a distraction in classrooms, but cellphones are not the number one issue in saskatchewan schools — it’s lack of funding.”
— with files from lisa johnson at the canadian press
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