Mobile phone use in schools

The use of mobile phones in school settings or environments is a topic of debate. Supporting parents believe that cell phones address their safety concerns by enabling them to communicate them with their children. Teachers and administrators opposed to mobile phone usage in schools believe that they cause disruption, and may be use for malicious purposes such as cheating on tests or taking inappropriate photographs.

A study of a group of undergraduate students, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior in 2015, found that among undergraduate students, total mobile-phone use (measured in number of minutes per day, not limited to school time) was "a significant and negative predictor of college students' academic performance, objectively measured as cumulative GPA." The study controlled for various other factors.

A 2015 study by the London School of Economics, conducted in four cities of England, found that test scores increased by more than 6% in schools which banned cell phones.

In the United Kingdom, no schools banned mobile phones in 2001. However, by 2007, 50% of the schools had banned these devices, and by 2012, this number had increased to 98%. According to CNN Money, students' academic skills reflected improvement when cell phone policies were implemented to bad cell phone use in schools. Schools banning students from carrying phones helped students score higher on exams and reduced the students' temptations to use cell phones for non-scholarly purposes.

In the past, some U.S. schools have installed mobile phone jammers to prevent mobile phones from working on campuses. The sale and use of jammers is illegal in the U.S. under the federal Communications Act of 1934, because jammers cut off 9-1-1 calls and can disrupt air navigation near airports, and in 2012 the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) stepped up enforcement of the law.Mt. Spokane High School in Washington state at one point installed a jammer in school to prevent students from calling and text-messaging, but removed the device after determining that it was "probably not legal" under federal law. In 2015, one Florida science teacher received a five-day unpaid suspension for installing a jammer in his classroom.

...
Wikipedia