While parents and teachers have called for a total ban on cellphones at school, the department is unlikely to concede.
|||While a call by the National Association of School Governing Bodies for a total ban on cellphones in classrooms and playgrounds is supported by parents and schools in KwaZulu-Natal, the provincial Education Department is unlikely to develop a policy to this effect.
The association, which claims 7 000 member schools across the country and 1 500 in KZN, said its stance was prompted by continued reports of pupils chatting on social networks during lesson time.
Association secretary-general Matakanye Matakanye said cellphones should be left at home rather than handed in at the office at the beginning of the day and then handed back at home time.
“The core business of a school is to teach children, not regulate cellphone use.”
According to research by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, a quarter of the victims of cyber-aggression were bullied via SMSes, and one in three were victims of cyber-aggression at school.
Both the chairman of the Association of School Governing Bodies of KZN, and the KZN Parents Association supported banning cellphones at schools.
KZN Education Department superintendent-general Nkosinathi Sishi said that banning cellphones from schools would not solve any of the associated problems and schools had to “teach discipline”.
Sishi said that although school governing bodies had the right to develop and implement such rules, the issue would not become the department’s policy in the near future.