School smartphone ban to be 'looked at carefully'

The newly elected president of the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture says he will be acting on policy around smartphone use among children "reasonably quickly".

Former teacher Deputy Paul Montague took up the position in June after becoming the highest polling new candidate in the Guernsey election.

Speaking to BBC Radio Guernsey, Montague said he was "so glad to be asked" about a potential ban on smartphone use in schools and was having important discussions with "experts in the field".

He said the committee needed to "look carefully at what a ban means" but was of the opinion "a community led smartphone ban" was initially needed for primary aged children.

Montague said: "I've been in touch over the weekend with the minister for Education over in Jersey who like me, was the National Education Union rep.

"We're going to be discussing how Jersey have dealt with it, as they have a similar situation to us."

Montague said he had also spoken to senior leaders in secondary schools to support schools and provide clarity on smartphone policies.

"I guess we could describe the policy as smartphones need to be off and away in school," he said.

"I think in primary schools we probably need to go further than that and be far more robust, but as I read more and more of the evidence and discuss more and more with groups of people, certainly that's something we're going to be acting on reasonably quickly."

The former teacher, who has been in the education sector for more than 30 years, said any new initiative needed to be "properly evidence based and pragmatic" to avoid being counter-productive.

Montague said smartphone technology was "so embedded into our lives" and it was difficult once you've "gone so far down that line to say lets move back against that".

He said: "At the moment at least one of our schools, students are allowed, with permission, to take their phones out to pay at the cafeteria.

"There are minor areas as well, we have students who have to check insulin levels on apps on their phones, things like that."

"This is why its not right for me in my first conversation on BBC Radio Guernsey to come straight out and say this is exactly what we're doing, there's still a lot of work to be done."

Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].