SHS Students split over use of mobile phones
Some senior high school (SHS) students in the country are divided over the continuous ban on the use of mobile phones in schools.
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While some of the students are in favour of the ban, others think it should be lifted and the use of mobile phones regulated.
The students shared their views in separate interviews with the Junior Graphic in Accra.
Master Maxwell Agbesi of the Akwamuman Senior High School disagreed with the lifting of the ban because he said students needed to study while in school.
“First of all, we are sent to school to study. I don’t think it is a good idea to use mobile phones in school, even if you are a boarder,” he said.
Master Sedinam Kudiavor of the Mfantsipim School supported the view of Master Agbesi explaining that students should not use mobile phones in school.
That, he said, was because the use of phones would distract students.
“Although having the mobile phone would be good, some of us might abuse it. We can use the internet on the mobile phone for research but some students might use it to access bad sites,” he said.
Miss Sarah Daniels of the Archbishop Porter Girls Senior High School also agreed that the use of mobile phones in school could distract students from their prime goal of studying.
“You might spend time listening to music, calling your friends, being on facebook and ‘whatsapping’ instead of studying,” she added.
She dismissed the argument that students could use the mobile phones for research and stated that: “if one wants to research on the internet, the person can go to the computer laboratory.”
Miss Jennifer Nyarko of the Aggrey Memorial Senior High School, however, disagreed with the ban on the use of mobile phones in SHSs.
For her, she believed times had changed and students might need the phones for a number of important things including making emergency calls to their parents.
“Mobile phones should be used in the senior high schools because if you are in the boarding house and you fall sick in the night or there is some emergency, you can call your parents,” she said.
She said the phones provided by the schools broke down very often and were, therefore, unreliable.
Master Denise Nunoo of the Ghana National College, Cape Coast, also thought the ban should be lifted because technology was driving the world now and mobile phones were important.
However, the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Alex Kyeremeh, told the Junior Graphic that the ban was still in force.
“We have not come out with any new policy other than the last one that bans the use of phones in schools. The use of mobile phone even distracts adults, let alone children,” he said.
This issue, he said, could be brought up at this year’s national education review conference for discussion.
