Parents and teachers support distraction-free lessons

State Duma parliamentarians approved a bill prohibiting schoolchildren from using phones in class. This innovation was first discussed last academic year.

The authors of the amendment to the bill to limit telephones in schools were State Duma deputies led by Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and the heads of all Duma factions.

“Do not use mobile radiotelephone communications during training sessions when mastering general education programs of primary general, basic general and secondary general education, except in cases of a threat to the life and health of students, employees of the organization carrying out educational activities,” follows from the text of the amendment.

“What do parents want when they send their child to school? For the child to study, do business, and gain useful knowledge and skills. Let’s answer the question: can a child regulate his actions independently without external help? No. This means that we, adults, are obliged to build the process so that it corresponds to the tasks that the school performs. Discipline is one of the most important factors for achieving success in any area of ​​life. And studying is no exception. If there are certain rules that students follow, then this helps them manage their time, their energy, which is so abundant at this age,” Olga Kazakova, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education, explains the deep idea of ​​the ban.

She added that discipline helps create good habits and get rid of bad ones. One of these bad habits, which often has already turned into addiction, is children holding phones in their hands. Therefore, parents and teachers are rightfully sounding the alarm.

“Some schools have long decided to set restrictions in this area. Somewhere such rules have been adopted at the regional level. But it became obvious that it would be more correct for all schools to follow a single format. This will make it easier for children to both understand and form a habit – “we don’t use the phone in class.” And teachers don’t need to explain why this school is like this and that school is different. The rule is the same for everyone. We do it. Parents will also know that at this time the child is not engaged in nonsense, does not play, is not distracted by correspondence, but is busy with business,” Kazakova concluded.

By the way, on January 1, 2021, the Sanitary and Epidemiological Requirements for Organizations of Education, Training, Recreation and Health of Children and Youth came into force, according to which “mobile communications are not used for educational purposes.” Mobile phones cannot be used during class instead of a computer or tablet due to the fact that such gadgets have a small screen size, which causes eye strain and poor posture.

The parent community supports the initiative. According to many, eliminating the phone in class will increase the child’s attentiveness and, accordingly, improve the learning of the material. Teachers also supported the innovation.

“Children without a phone are more focused. They are not distracted by vibration from received messages in chats or push notifications in games. The effect is noticeable immediately, there are no “requests”, no problems with homework after topics covered in class,” says Vitaly Afonenkov, a mathematics and geometry teacher from Orenburg.

“I will support you here 100%! Firstly, children, especially those in the back desks, can spend the entire 40 minutes playing games instead of a lesson. Secondly, high school students, especially when their first love comes, do not stop texting. As a result, at the end of the lesson, the teenager has 0 information in his head about what the lesson was all about. It gets to the point where they don’t remember the subject!” said Anna Trudiy, a teacher of Russian language and literature from Magadan.

Photo: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation