In the coming months, the Mission Public School District will develop a policy and procedure for cell phones in schools amidst a province-wide crackdown.
In late January, Premier David Eby said the province would ask school districts across the province to develop policies restricting cellphone use during instructional time.
“It (cellphone use) is hard on the classroom environment,” he said at the time. “In addition to the unregulated content that kids can have access to at school, it disrupts the flow of the classroom, it interrupts the kids while they are learning, making it difficult for them to where they started.”
However, it will be up to teachers and school districts to work out the details.
“Our goal is that it works, that it actually results in the outcome that I think we all want without dictating a particular method,” Eby said.
MPSD was already in the process of developing a cell phone policy before the provincial announcement. The district’s in-progress policy was focused on cell phone use for staff as well as students.
“With our board about six months ago, we had started those conversations about what does it look like to have a cell phone policy and what procedures to follow,” MPSD school board chair Shelley Carter said.
Carter says it’s still a conversation at this point and the board is looking at everything with the deadline for restrictions set for September 2024.
“For the provincial requirements, it doesn’t have to be a policy per se. It can just be a procedure,” MPSD superintendent Angus Wilson said.
Wilson says it’s not an outright ban on cell phones, but districts should have some restrictions in place. He says procedures throughout the province will likely be more restrictive on younger students than older students.
“What you’ll find in the vast majority of places, is it’s going to be something along the lines of you can’t use your cell phone during class time unless directed to do so by the teacher. So for example, a teacher says ‘Hey, use the calculator on your phone’ or ‘Look up how far away Mars is from Earth’ or whatever — that’s fine. But it’s not a social fun activity or text messaging,” Wilson said.
Nothing has been officially decided on the direction the district will take but more will be finalized in the coming months. Carter says the board has received concerns from the Mission District Parents’ Advisory Council (MDPAC) on how the policy will work.
Wilson says the district will be seeking feedback from both the public and students on the cell phone policy.
“The majority of teachers will tell you that cell phones are a distraction and can create a negative learning environment but at the same time, there are some things that they can do really well,” Wilson said.
Carter says some districts are using cell phones as tools in the classroom, especially at the high school level. She also wonders how the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms will fit with the policy.
At MPSD’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Oct. 3, board members discussed the use of AI in schools as well.
The district is taking a patient approach with AI and will wait to see how the technology progresses before developing a policy.
Wilson is hopeful the district will have a policy and/or procedure for cell phones in place in April or May — well in advance of the September deadline.
-With files from Wolfgang Depner
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