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tank: saskatchewan finally gets text on cellphone use in schools
saskatchewan again imposes an august surprise on teachers, students and school boards and struggles to provide specifics about consultation.
aug 8 2024
3 minute read
saskatchewan minster of education jeremy cockrill stands at a media event for the site of a new school near harbour landing on tuesday, august 6, 2024 in regina. kayle neis / regina leader-post
kayle neis
/
regina leader-post
at least this year’s august surprise for teachers and other school staff from saskatchewan’s government is actually focused on trying to improve education.
last august, the province announced, seemingly out of nowhere, a mandate for teachers to obtain parental permission before letting students under 16 change their names and pronouns in the classroom.
this week, education minister jeremy cockrill said saskatchewan would become the “ninth” province to restrict cellphone use in classrooms . nothing like leading the way in education.
the cellphone restriction bears a resemblance to the pronoun law in that the minister struggled to explain what sort of consultation led to the decision, other than ministry officials suddenly realized everyone else was doing it.
this appears to be a decision driven by a motivation most people leave behind in high school — peer pressure.
yet saskatchewan is not only late to the game in canada; barring cellphone use from classrooms is happening globally, in countries as diverse as china, russia and many nations in europe and asia.
in alberta, which announced a looming provincewide restriction on the use of internet-connected devices in classrooms in june, the government surveyed 68,000 people, including parents, teachers, students and other stakeholders, as reported by the regina leader-post this week.
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the overwhelming majority supported restricted use in classrooms.
in saskatchewan, cockrill declined to provide details about the alleged consultation, but said in a social media video the saskatchewan party government heard “loud and clear” about the need for restrictions.
our province is often accused, usually quite aptly, of copying its next-door neighbour, but certainly not when it comes to providing evidence for its decisions. or, for that matter, giving educators time to prepare with school resuming in september. many questions remain unanswered.
despite cockrill’s claims of seeking input, jaime smith-windsor, president of the saskatchewan school boards association, cited a lack of “robust consultation” on the policy, which will be left to school boards to implement.
that’s particularly interesting since the school boards association seemed like an ally of the government in its still-unresolved contract dispute with the teachers’ union.
another unilateral move to impose provincial rules on school boards, some of which already have implemented cellphone restrictions, will leave trustees wondering again whether the province truly believes in their independence.
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saskatchewan teachers federation president samantha becotte called the announcement a “bit of a distraction” from the real issues plaguing education in the province, specifically adequate per-student funding.
that message was echoed by the ndp opposition.
it also rates as ironic for the government to be accused of distraction, since its sole stated reasons for implementing the restriction are limited to the distraction cellphones create for students and the resulting difficulties posed for teachers.
those reasons qualify as vitally important in a province where the quality of education appears to be plummeting, based on the steep declines in student test scores in math, reading and science, which already ranked well below national averages.
so it can certainly be considered positive that the province is taking an interest in what’s happening in classrooms, beyond letting the oil industry offer courses .
studies show that removing devices from classrooms does indeed improve learning, which prompted a global call a year ago from unesco to severely limit their use .
but the worldwide move to ban smartphones in classrooms is also motivated by the need to improve the mental health of youth, a factor not mentioned by saskatchewan’s government.
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smart devices and social media combine to exacerbate anxiety and stress for students.
you might think that saskatchewan, with the leading suicide rate among provinces, would be driven to find solutions to what has been widely acknowledged as a prevailing mental health crisis.
inadequate mental health resources drive so many of the problems we see in this province and elsewhere, including crime, addiction and homelessness.
saskatchewan still employs a chief medical health officer, does it not? does he support this move?
maybe someone could text him a message on his cellphone.
phil tank is the digital opinion editor at the saskatoon starphoenix.
our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. for regina leader-post newsletters click here; for saskatoon starphoenix newsletters click here
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