Educators, students share mixed reviews of incoming Sask. cell phone use ban

Students, teachers and experts have mixed reviews on whether a cellphone use ban in K-12 schools is the right move — but most wonder if it's government legislating something that wasn't really an issue.

On Tuesday, the provincial government announced a cellphone use ban during classtime for all Kindergarten to Grade 12 school classrooms starting in the coming school year — an attempt to stifle the contention for students' attention.

The majority of Canadian provinces have announced policies for the coming year for some or all grades.

In a video statement posted to Facebook, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill announced the policy, saying "we have heard loud and clear from parents, teachers and students that cellphones in classrooms are distracting our kids from learning and making teaching more difficult for our educators."

He says there are limited exceptions that will allow some student cellphone use in class, including medical issues.

Joanne Feeley — a 29-year teacher living in Assiniboia, Sask., located about 135 kilometres southwest of Regina — first heard about the change from watching Cockrill's announcement video. 

Feeley says she is curious about why Cockrill is pursuing the ban over other more significant issues.

"I have just been wondering how he has not heard loud and clear from parents, teachers and students about the needs for human resources in our school buildings, throughout the last two years especially," she told the CBC on Thursday.

"It did feel like it could be a little tone deaf."

Feeley is not opposed to the ban — and already had her own policies in her classroom to limit phone distractions — but she finds the issues of class composition and complexity that were echoed by teachers at picket lines during stalled contract negotiations between the province and the teacher's union seemed not to reach Cockrill's ears.

When Marc Spooner, an education professor at the University of Regina, first heard about the announcement, he considered the policy a way to avoid making significant change while appearing to support teachers after "vilifying" them during negotiations.

Those talks ended in a stalemate and both parties agreeing to binding arbitration. The arbitration hearing is set for December 16 to 20 in Saskatoon.

Spooner doesn't believe there will be any noticeable changes to classrooms, what with many teachers and school boards already having cellphone-use policies in place.

He disagrees with politicians outside of schools making changes to what happens inside classrooms.