Should children should be banned from having mobile phones at school?

A UN report has suggested smartphones should be banned in schools globally to protect children’s mental health and improve learning. In many schools, smartphones are not allowed to be used during lessons and should be turned off but can be used for emergencies.

And last month, the BBC reported that in the Netherlands, devices including mobile phones are set to be banned from classrooms to stop them from disrupting learning.

The initiative is being introduced in collaboration with schools and is to take effect at the start of next year.

There will be some exceptions, including for students with medical needs or a disability, and for classes focused on digital skills.

Your Chad hit the streets to find out whether a similar move would be a good idea in UK schools.

And the responses we got back were all universally in favour of saying yes, kids should’t have mobiles in class or in school at all.

And it was a belief that that having phones in class would adversley affect their learning that was the main theme throughout.

One resident said: “Yes definitely, them having phones there hampers their education.”

Another said: Yes, they should be concentrating on their learning not their phones.”

And a third said: “They’ve got to concentrate on their lesssons, that’s what they’re there for, not going on Google or anything like that, they’re there to learn.”

But others felt that with a bit better policing of phone use in schools, pupils could be able to have them.

One resident who felt that way said: “I agree on banning them to a degree because they keep looking at them in class.

"If they were only allowed to look at them when they were on the way home, to tell their parents they were on their way home, rather than just keep looking at them under the desk, that would be alright.

"I know some do need phones at school to tell parents if they’re ill or need picking up perhaps.”