Cecilia Claire Widjaja, Secondary 1 Logic
It has become a school rule that all the secondary students can bring their phones which they must surrender every morning before class. The leading concern is whether or not the school should let the students keep their phones in their bags, or continue to surrender it. While it is understandable that students want to keep their phones, there may be grave consequences for abusing this freedom. To explore several perspectives throughout the BBS community, we interviewed several people to get their views on this matter.
Cheryl G. from Secondary 1 Logic stated that while we can be responsible with using our phones — by only using it for contacts and utilities — potential conflicts arise. Namely: students may not listen to instructions and choose to play games instead.
Students may use social media chronically until it intrudes on their daily life, and while it can be entertaining, students might eventually grow an addiction and lose control of themselves. This could disrupt the learning environment cultivated in school — the students’ focus going haywire as a result.
We asked Ms. Amruta Jangli, the head of the discipline committee, on what we can do to prevent this — here’s what she said:
“It can take time for secondary students to develop resilience and respect for their teachers and grow a sense of responsibility. For JC students who are heading to university soon, they have to learn that responsibility. However, this will take time for the Secondary students to learn, that’s why we collect their phones.”
We also asked her about the consequences for letting the students keep their phones, and she told us that the phones “can be and will be confiscated by the teacher in charge.”
After this interview, we learnt one very valuable thing: that there is no flaw in giving students this ‘phone-privilege’ , but rather it takes a certain level of character to with discipline and integrity.
So, what do you think? Should teenagers such as the Secondary students be trusted and do they have the responsibility to keep that trust?
