AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
My word association with the word pouch used to be Kangaroo, a nice safe pocket for Baby Roo to keep him warm while his mum hops about the place. That was until Norma Foley decided that secondary school pupils should have nice safe pouches for their smartphones to stop teenagers accessing them during time in school. What prompted the Minister for Education to lash out €9 million of taxpayers’ money on €20 pouches?
As teenagers head back to their classrooms after the Halloween break, it’s a good question.
It might be fashionable concern prompted by Jonathan Haidt’s bestselling book The Anxious Generation. The social psychologist from New York University quotes data showing soaring rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm among teenagers and he blames social media and smartphones. Other studies link smartphone overuse with social harm to teens too.
It might have been a desire to buy parental votes in the October 1 Budget, where the Coalition flung money about like confetti. But the effect of the largesse has voters worrying about profligacy and failure to invest in significant change rather than increasing the Government’s popularity.
Minister Foley says she wants to make school smartphone-free for the sake of children’s mental health. “We want a uniform approach where there will be no access to mobile phones throughout the school day. So we have provided €9m. for that, for the purchase of things like pouches or whatever types of solutions that might be identified by the school.” (Oddly, a search on line for pouches revealed most models cost much less than €20.)
And her decision wasn’t a response to something that teachers asked for – ASTI wasn’t even consulted about the move and the association is critical of the Budget for failing to provide resources for serious issues facing schools. “The measure regarding student pouches in schools for mobile phones shows the extent to which meaningful engagement regarding the big issues in education is being avoided,” an ASTI spokesperson told me. “The recruitment and retention crisis deteriorates every week in many of our schools and the scars of years of underinvestment. The OECD Education At A Glance 2024 report ranked Ireland in last place out of 34 countries for investment in education as a proportion of GDP.”
It isn’t a decision which is going to cure any harm caused to teens by smartphones either, as pouches are just a sticking plaster over the symptoms.
Smartphones per se are not the problem – it’s the access they give to social media, porn, disinformation and the way they are used. Smartphones are part of our lives now; teens need to learn how to use them responsibly and isn’t it up to parents and teachers to facilitate that lesson? And isn’t it up to Government and all of us to insist that that the big social media companies crack down on undesirable content?
Pouching phones seem a bit like a spaghetti western, where cowboys leave their guns at the door of the saloon because they can’t be trusted not to start a shoot up. Taking away phones sends a message about a lack of trust and it’s an imposed decision which avoids the issue of discipline.
If parents are concerned about the potential harm to young minds why give teenagers smartphones in the first place, why not give them ‘dumbphones’ instead which don’t connect with the internet?
Parent /child agreements about rationing screen time and education about avoidance of cyber bullying and harmful content make sense.
Most schools already have measures in place to deal with smartphone usage, as part of policies which are agreed the boards of management and with the school community. Policy around cell phones in secondary schools varies according to the needs of each school community, from no use during school hours to limited use for education purposes.
The details of the pouch measure, due to come into effect next year haven’t been released yet. Given the general reaction to the €9m. spend in contrast to crying needs homeless children, children in care and children in need of medical or psychological treatment.
It seems it will be added to the list of Government follies, together with the infamous bike shed and the runaway cost of the unfinished children’s hospital.
