DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | April 30, 2024

Published 03 Sep, 2011 03:17am

Debate: Should cellphones be allowed in schools?

Cellphones today have become such a necessity in everyone’s lives and whether cellphones should be allowed at school has become a very hotly debated topic. Although there are quite a few advantages of bringing cellphones to school, the disadvantages of doing so surely outweigh them.

Allowing cellphones to school would be equivalent to giving an open invitation to distraction. This is because with so many activities in a single gadget, students are bound to be tempted to indulge in them, hence deviating from the main objective of coming to school. Their concentration towards studies would deteriorate as they would be busy fiddling with their cellphones.

Teachers would also get distracted, as it is likely that the cellphones will ring during class, destroying the tempo of the entire class.

Not only this, with a cellphone in everyone’s hands, there would naturally be unhealthy competition to see who has got the latest model and the hottest brand. This would only increase the worries and expenditure of parents as every student would pester their parents to buy them new cellphones. Also it would make students with not so latest cellphones be a victim of inferiority complex. Worse still, it may also create a barrier or ‘cellphone-fuelled class difference’ between students as cellphones models and brands are now considered a status symbol.

Bringing cellphones to school would also pave way for theft. With expensive cellphones in every other person’s bag, anyone could steal a cellphone, disrupting discipline and making school a very unsafe place.

Many people argue that a cellphone allows parents to stay in touch with their children and remain informed about their whereabouts and anything that they need to. This, however, is also possible without a cellphone, as schools have phones and any important information can be conveyed through it.

Cellphones can be seen as a means employed by students for cheating during examinations. They can simply text anyone and ask for assistance. Not only this, it can give rise to after school gang activities and be misused in many ways, like making prank calls just for fun. This can lead to serious consequences and cause unnecessary panic as well as waste time.

The aforementioned points clearly establish the fact that the reasons for not allowing cellphones in schools are based on clear reservations and not on flimsy grounds, hence cellphones should not be allowed at schools.

Read Comments

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar appointed deputy prime minister Next Story