This year will mark the 18th year of SNP control of the Scottish Government. That means that no child currently in primary or secondary education in Scotland will have lived under any other ruling party. Unfortunately for our young people, they are coming of age in a Scotland which is characterised by growing social inequality and widening attainment gaps. Under SNP mismanagement, education in Scotland has become yet another arena of broken promises and persistent failure.
Chief amongst the SNP’s most recent hollow promises concerns a ban on mobile phones in schools. Last year Jenny Gilruth – the latest in a long line of hapless SNP Education secretaries – told head teachers that they would be given government backing were they to implement mobile phone restrictions such as pupils having to hand over phones before class. This followed the example of many private schools, which have already implemented mobile phone restrictions at the behest of parents, teachers and even pupils themselves.
Apparently to this end, in August 2024 the Scottish Government released guidance to teachers and education authorities on mobile phones in schools – yet that same guidance deemed that a full-scale ban on phones was “not considered to be appropriate or feasible.” Defending this hugely watered-down commitment, Jenny Gilruth claimed that teachers “know better than anyone the specific approach which will work best in their school.” And just last week, she confirmed to the Scottish Parliament that her guidance “goes as far as I am able to towards a full scale ban.”
But that is not true, and it is not good enough. Education is a wholly devolved matter and of course the Cabinet Secretary has the powers to implement a ban. What is required to do so, however, is decisive, clear and effective leadership. And that is precisely what is lacking from this SNP government. Ms Gilruth has seemed, at least at times, to acknowledge the profound merits of mobile phone restrictions in our schools. What she lacks is the will to use the powers she has, to demonstrate decisive leadership, and to actually implement a ban.
Anas Sarwar and Scottish Labour, by contrast, have been unequivocal – a ban is not only feasible and appropriate, but necessary. The SNP inherited a historically great nation of educators and have turned Scottish education into a shambles. Scotland’s place in global OECD rankings for reading, maths, and science has declined by SEVENTY points over the past decade; the decline in England over the same period under Tory rule was twenty points – still unacceptably bad, but Scotland comes off much worse. And that’s despite, unlike in England, a significant increase in education spending in Scotland – demonstrating that the SNP are not only presiding over the collapse of Scottish education but are also squandering taxpayers’ money in the process.
The reality is that a Scotland-wide ban on phones in our schools is an essential step we can take to safeguard our young people. Research shows that the average 12-year-old in the UK spends 21 hours a week on their smartphone: that is time that children are losing from real life play and interactions. Addiction to smartphones threatens the ability of Scotland’s young people to make meaningful connections in the real world.
There is also a growing body of evidence demonstrating that smartphones, and social media in particular, are negatively impacting children’s mental health, sleep and learning. The excessive use of mobile phones amongst children has a proven link to a number of developmental issues including increases in ADHD, a reduction in academic attainment, and damage to emotional and social development. There are also a number of physical health issues that arise from excessive smartphone use such as poor eyesight, obesity and worse sleep. Online spaces can also be breeding grounds for exposure to harmful content and to cyberbullying.
A ban on phones in schools will not solve all of these problems overnight, but it is a start – and a step in the right direction towards creating healthy habits for our young people and healthier relationships with their phones.
There are, of course, practical and logistical concerns to be worked out – but these are far from insurmountable. A key issue is where many hundreds if not thousands of phones in an average school might best be stored safely and securely throughout the school day – one solution could be the use of magnetic phone pouches which can only be unlocked with the touch of a special magnetic station. Trials of such schemes in England have proved successful.
I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to checking my phone more than I should. But classrooms, of all places, are no place for phones – they are places for learning, and for real-world, human interaction, engagement and growth. There are practical challenges and logistics to be worked out, but a world in which our young people have a healthier relationship with their phones – and their peers – is entirely possible. Bans on drink-driving, enforcement of seatbelt regulations – these were once thought pie-in-the-sky and impossible to enforce, but are now accepted as entirely normal and sensible.
The challenge is strong and decisive leadership to overcome difficulties and have the vision to see such things through. And that is exactly what Anas Sarwar and Scottish Labour are offering the Scottish people next May – a change of direction, the chance of fresh and invigorated leadership rather than the passive management of decline.
The Cabinet Secretary has been clear that she feels unable to institute a ban on phones in schools, and thus to take action on the cause of worsening mental wellbeing and mental health, of low physical activity, of poorer sleep, of lower grades and of more disruptive classroom behaviour. It’s time that she, and the government to which she belongs, hand over to a government in Scotland that will.
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