As students and teachers prepare for the first day of school, Ontario’s new education minister says the province will support educators in enforcing a classroom ban on cellphones and vapes that takes effect Sept. 1.
The province-wide ban, announced in April, prevents students in kindergarten to Grade 6 from using their phones in the classroom “for the full instructional day,” Education Minister Jill Dunlop said at a news conference Thursday.
“I want teachers to know, this is a new initiative. This is a culture change that’s happening in our classrooms,” Dunlop said, speaking at a public school in Caledon, Ont., approximately 65 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
She said students in grades 7 to 12 will be required to turn off their phones or put them in silent mode, and keep them out of view during class time. They will be allowed to use their devices during breaks.
“Students are looking at social media and they’re texting each other,” Dunlop said. “They’re not paying attention to what’s being taught in class.”
She said students who rely on mobile devices for special education needs or to monitor medical conditions will still be able to use them.
The Ontario government is introducing new standardized rules about the use of cellphones in the classroom, but some teachers say the ban ignores that the devices have become a valuable research tool and that it’s an opportunity to teach kids about self-regulation.
The new rules also ban vape devices, and nicotine and tobacco products from school settings, Dunlop said.
The government will spend $30 million for schools to install vape detectors “and other security upgrades,” according to a news release issued Thursday.
Dunlop said the rules include disciplinary policies. If a student does not follow a teacher’s instruction to put their phone away, they will be asked to put the device in a “safe space” in the classroom, she said.
If the student still does not comply, she said they will be sent to the principal’s office.
“Students are in the classroom to learn and teachers deserve that respect of students [being there] listening and learning” she said.
The Progressive Conservative government initially banned cellphone use in 2019, saying students could only use personal mobile devices during instructional time for educational purposes, health purposes or for special needs. But the specifics of the ban was left up to boards and schools to implement.
Classroom phone usage akin to ‘Wild, Wild West’: teacher
Chey Cheney, a teacher at Beaumonde Heights Junior Middle School in Toronto, said issues with cellphones pop up in his classroom every few minutes — whether it’s a device that should be put away or isn’t being used properly.
“The cellphone is a little bit like the Wild, Wild West in previous days. It’s in abundance so you have to address it,” he said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Metro Morning on Wednesday.
Cheney said part of being a teacher is showing students how much power and value can be accessed through their phones, but they easily become a distraction.
“It’s so addictive and so easy to use for stuff that’s not necessarily supporting the learning environment,” he said.
“You invest so much energy in trying to [get students] to use that cellphone appropriately.”
Claudine Tyrell, principal at Humberside Collegiate Institute in Toronto, says several departments in her school have already implemented their own policies to deal with cellphone usage.
She said she’s hopeful schools will get support from parents and students to enforce the ban, with the goal of improving student wellbeing, engagement and learning.
“We want students to be speaking to their peers who are in front of them, as opposed to connecting with someone who is three floors away,” Tyrell told Metro Morning on Wednesday.
She said she is sending out a letter to parents this week informing them about the new provincial restrictions.
Tyrell said “digital citizenship,” meaning understanding appropriate technology use, is important for students.
Under the Toronto District School Board’s 1:1 Student Device Program, students are issued a Chromebook for educational purposes in grades 5 and 9.
“We hope that students learn the importance of the use of technology [and] digital citizenship, but just in a way that they’re not using their personal devices,” Tyrell said.
At Thursday’s news conference, Dunlop said the government began advertising the new rules online and in print to inform parents and students about the ban.
She said she recognized phones “are a great educational resource in the classroom when that time is called for by the teacher.”
But as a former educator herself, Dunlop said she’s seen first-hand how distracting cell phones can be for teachers and students. According to her website, she previously taught at Georgian College.
Schools face bigger issues: union president
Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said there are bigger problems than cellphone usage facing the province’s education system.
“We’re ignoring overcrowded classes, hot classrooms, unqualified staff and all the real issues in education,” she said.
Littlewood said teachers have questions about the ban as individual school boards prepare policies that follow the government’s rules.
In an email to CBC Toronto on Thursday, the Toronto Catholic District School Board said it had created a new device policy for the 2024-2025 academic year.
But Littlewood said she thinks many boards in the province don’t have a policy ready yet, even though most students are returning to school next week.
Many teachers will want to continue using cellphones in class during lessons as they are “an incredibly valuable and powerful tool,” she said — particularly as schools don’t always have access to the technology they need.
“We have to make up our mind if we’re going to invest in education and put what’s needed into it, or if we’re just going to try to fix things with rules,” Littlewood said.
Thursday marked the first time Dunlop addressed the media since she became education minister in mid-August. The Simcoe North MPP replaced Todd Smith after he resigned his seat just months after taking the job.