Manitoba bans cellphones in school for K-8 students

Manitoba will ban cellphones in school for students from kindergarten to Grade 8 starting this September, while students in grades 9 to 12 will be barred from using their phones while in class, the province says.

Though phone use during school hours won't be allowed at all for students from kindergarten to Grade 8, those in grades 9 to 12 will be allowed to use their phones during lunch and other breaks, the government said in a news release Thursday.

The new guidelines include several exceptions, including allowing in-class phone use for educational purposes when directed by teachers. There will also be exceptions for students with certain medical and diverse learning needs, the province said.

There is also expected to be clear direction for cellphone use in classrooms for school staff.

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives had previously called for a provincewide ban for kindergarten to Grade 8 students.

The government said earlier this week an update on the topic was coming soon, after Manitoba became the only western Canadian province that had not introduced plans to restrict phones in schools following Saskatchewan's decision to ban the use of the devices in the upcoming school year.

Saskatchewan's policy applies to all kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms, and followed announcements in Alberta, B.C., Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The bans are designed to reduce distractions and help students focus in class.

Studies show it can take up to 20 minutes for a child to refocus on what they were learning once they're distracted, Manitoba Education Minister Nello Altomare said in the news release.

Educators have noticed a difference

Evan Janzen Roth, a senior years mathematics teacher and department head at Collège Sturgeon Heights Collegiate in Winnipeg, said in the province's news release that the school banned students from using their phones during class time last year, but let them take them out on breaks.

The teacher said the restrictions gave students the chance to improve their focus without the distraction of their phones and "read more books or engage more with their peers and teachers" when they finished work or assessments early. The fact that the policy was school-wide also made it easy to implement, since everyone had the same expectations, the teacher said. 

Some school divisions in Manitoba had already imposed their own cellphone bans prior to Thursday's update, with one taking the restriction of screen time even further.

Manitoba's francophone school division is set to restrict computer usage for elementary and middle school students starting this school year. It is directing teachers to limit screen time to no more than an hour a day while in the classroom, following the division's decision to ban cellphones last year in all of its schools.

The Hanover School Division in southern Manitoba embarked on a pilot project last year with Stonybrook, one of its middle schools in Steinbach, Man., to see if a ban would be effective.

The division spoke with principals, the school board and parent councils and found they were in favour of a division-wide policy change for kindergarten to Grade 8, which was already set to begin this school year, before the province made its announcement Thursday.

Mixed reaction from students

Students who spoke to CBC News earlier this week said they had mixed feelings about a potential cellphone ban.

Jurilynn Eileen Bonifacio Weekes said she thinks it would likely improve productivity at her school.

"Kids don't really, like, pay attention," the Grade 6 student said. "They're always texting and being disrespectful to their teachers."

Grade 10 student Jack Ralph agreed, saying while cellphones can be used for productive purposes, in reality "a lot of people are playing video games a lot of the time."

Liam Robson, who's in Grade 11, said he's noticed himself getting distracted by notifications on his phone during school hours — and has seen how those distractions have led to his grades dropping.

And if there's a chance taking phones out of classrooms can help reduce cyberbullying, it seems worth doing, said Grade 12 student Annabelle Dacey, whose school already has restrictions on cellphones.

"Schools are supposed to be like an accepting place and somewhere students should be able to go and feel comfortable learning," Dacey said.

However, Grade 10 student Edwin Dalke said he thinks while there could be benefits to a cellphone ban, there are also drawbacks that need to be considered.

At his school, for instance, teachers and students often use Microsoft Teams on their phones to communicate — which a ban would make difficult.

"I think it would be good for some schools, I think it could be bad for others," Dalke said.