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Manitoba, the only province in Western Canada that has not yet adopted a blanket ban on cellphones in school classrooms, said it was imminent.
“Manitoba’s plan regarding cellphone use in the classroom will be announced later this week,” Ryan Stelter, a spokesman for Manitoba Premier Wab Kiniff, said in a statement Monday.
Kinew revealed on 680 CJOB’s Monday News that a ban may be in place.
“What are the arguments against banning cell phones in schools? For example, is there any compelling reason to allow a child to have a cell phone in the classroom playing TikTok?” Kinew said.
“We have to encourage young people to pay attention, learn maths, read, sit down and read. I think holding a phone at the same time hinders that.”
Manitoba is the only province in Western Canada that has yet to introduce plans to restrict cellphone use in schools, following Saskatchewan’s decision last week to ban cellphones in schools for the upcoming school year.
Saskatchewan’s policy applies to all kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms, and Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia have issued similar policies.
The bans are designed to reduce distractions and help students focus on the lesson.
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The Manitoba education department says it is currently up to individual school districts to develop and enforce their own policies for technology use in their schools.
But the department said in a statement it was engaging with stakeholders “to ensure provincial curriculum and technology use guidelines are updated to reflect current patterns of technology use.”
The opposition Progressive Conservatives have called for a province-wide ban.
Conservative education critic Grant Jackson said he had heard from some teachers who wanted policies so they did not have to supervise the devices alone in the classroom.
The Conservatives want a ban for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
“(Cellphones) are the way the world works, and I’m not saying go back to the old days. But I am saying that students need to be able to pay attention,” Jackson said in an interview.
“I don’t think we’re setting the stage for student success if we leave it up to eight- and nine-year-olds to control device use, which is what’s happening right now.”
Some school districts have already implemented their own phone bans, with one going even further to limit screen time.
Manitoba’s French-language school division will limit computer use for elementary and secondary school students starting this school year. The division is instructing teachers to limit screen time to no more than one hour per day in the classroom.
This follows the department’s decision last year to ban mobile phones in all schools.
“We focus on keeping children computer literate so they are up to par. But is five hours a day in front of a screen the right thing to do? We think not,” said department head Alain Laberge.
LaBerge said teachers at 24 schools in the French-speaking region told administrators that it was a challenge to ensure students completed their homework on time every day.
For the most part, LaBerge said, staff and parents have embraced the recent changes. He said there have been some growing pains, such as substitute teachers not being familiar with the changes or some students flouting the rules, but that those should lessen over time.
The Hanover School District in southern Manitoba ran a pilot project with one of its schools last year to see if a ban would work. The district spoke with principals, school boards and parent committees and found they supported a district-wide policy change for kindergarten to Grade 8 starting this school year.
Colin Campbell, Hanover’s deputy principal, said school staff have reported improved behavior and fewer office referrals due to technology misuse or problems online.
The department found that social media conflicts can spill over into the classroom, distracting students and teachers and taking away from instructional and social time.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
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