The national schools inspectorate, Ofsted , whose website describes itself as “raising standards/improving lives”, has announced that it is starting a campaign to improve discipline in our schools.  About time too you may think, but let’s be generous: at least it’s a step in the right direction, no matter that it’s probably about forty years overdue!

According to newspaper reports, Ofsted have specifically stated their intention to encourage schools to  ban the use of mobile phones by children in the classroom.  I’m sure that parents who no longer have children or grandchildren at school will be astounded by that statement and will wonder how on earth we have got to the situation where children are allowed to bring mobile phones to the classroom in the first place. 

Call me old fashioned but aren’t school classrooms meant to be places of learning? Aren’t schools places where children are to be provided with an education as opposed to the opportunity to play computer games, text their friends and access goodness knows what on the internet.

How can such a distracting and disruptive practice be allowed? Have our state schools really sunk that low? The answer is sadly in the affirmative. If you doubt it just read the newspaper reports of demoralised teachers, assaulted by pupils and abused by parents, packing it in after years of stress and lack of support from successive governments.  

If children have to bring their phones to school, and I can see times when a phone might be necessary, such as phoning a parent for a lift or confirming a late return home, then they should be left in a locker in the school and accessed only when school is over or possibly in the school lunch hour, with the head teacher’s approval.  All schools have land lines and I’m pretty sure that they still have secretaries who are more than capable of linking pupils with their parents during school hours should it be absolutely necessary.

If Ofsted is serious about “raising standards” it should ensure that mobile phones are banned from the classroom forthwith.