Ban on cellphones helps Sivasagar schools emerge as top performers

Guwahati: For the last three years, mobile phones have been barred from classrooms in govt-run schools across Assam’s Sivasagar district, except for limited use in digital teaching and in some special cases.The move helped the district emerge as the top performer in school assessment in the state, officials said. Educators say the restriction was essential for an effective teaching-learning environment. Earlier, classrooms in Sivasagar frequently faced disruptions because both teachers and a section of senior students carried mobile phones with them.The order banning mobile phones was first issued in Jan 2023, when educationist Kamal Jyoti Gogoi was the inspector of schools in Sivasagar district.

During visits to school campuses, Gogoi said he often noticed some teachers chatting on their phones when they were supposed to be engaging with students in the classroom. He told TOI that the problem became more serious post-Covid, when students, too, began bringing smartphones to the class.

“There was no alternative but to impose a ban on smartphones and mobile phones. The distraction in the teaching-learning process due to the use of phones caught my attention, and the order was issued except for limited use in teachers’ common rooms and for digital classes or wherever necessary,” Gogoi said.

“Sivasagar secured first position in the school assessment exercise, Gunotsav, several times. One of the primary reasons for the same is the proper use of mobile phones or smartphones,” he added.Enforcing the ban was not simple, since teachers now mark attendance through their smartphones after entering the school campus, and a total ban could raise concerns about personal freedom. To address this, many schools created storage spaces in teachers’ common rooms where phones are kept safely while teachers conduct regular classes.“Phones keep ringing, but teachers attend phone calls only after classes,” said Uday Dutta, headmaster of Demow Girls’ High School and secretary of the district academic council. He said some teachers were often occupied on social media earlier, but now their behaviour has changed to a great extent.Dutta added that their school has two digital classrooms where smartphones serve as the link to the digital world, but apart from such internet-based use, classes can be conducted without these electronic gadgets.

“There are some cases where knowledge must be gathered through the internet. In such cases, only school heads are authorised to give permission to a teacher to use a mobile phone or smartphone in a normal class and we give permission in case of special needs,” Dutta said.“Prohibition on mobile phone use was a bold decision at that time. Some other states are also considering the idea of a mobile phone ban for schoolchildren today,” said Deva Jyoti Gogoi, present inspector of schools, Sivasagar.From primary to higher secondary level, Sivasagar has 1,239 govt-run schools where the order must be followed strictly. Officials said private schools are free to decide for themselves, though some adopted the same approach to reduce distractions.“I found many teachers taking classes and also using mobiles for personal matters. The trend was worrying,” said Kamal, who has now retired from govt service. However, education department officials who succeeded him continued implementing the directive, while also spreading awareness in academic circles about both the positive and negative effects of mobile phones.