We will regret as a country if we allow SHS students to use mobile phones in schools – Educationist

An Educationist Mr. Osei Tutu has expressed worry about the call from Oyoko Methodist SHS.

Mr. Seth Darko Odame, the headmaster of Oyoko Methodist SHS has appealed to the government to allow students to use mobile phones in schools for research.

Speaking on Plan B FM’s morning show NKOSUONSEM hosted by Obidehye Kofi Sekyi, Mr. Osei Tutu emphasized that we will regret if we allow students to use phones in schools, “If this is allowed it needs to be controlled but do we have the mechanisms to control it?.

He said students will be addicted to their phones which will  lead to poor academic performance.

“Students will not pay attention while studying, and spending too much time on their phones disturbs their sleep which could lead to absenteeism”

He further stated that, there is a lot of inappropriate content on the internet. Students, who are too young to differentiate between fact and fiction, find this mesmerizing and risk getting misled. The pull of the virtual world is so strong, it increases social disturbance and moral downfall.

“Phones have come to stay and their importance in research cannot be downplayed so I suggest there should be well-thought policies to allow students to use them at schools,”

Headmaster of Oyoko Methodist SHS Mr. Seth Darko Odame has said.
Defending his call, the educationist was of the view that such an initiative would improve the academic performance of students if the right implementation is done.

Speaking with the press in Koforidua of the Eastern Region, Mr. Odame revealed that most SHS across the country do not have enough computers to cater to all students, hence the need to allow students to use phones to augment the situation.

He stated “OMESS for instance sometimes has to look out for computers elsewhere to augment what we have during the examination period because what we have in the school is not enough and I know a lot of other schools have the same challenges. I think there must be a regulation to ensure students don’t abuse phone usage so that they can have access to the internet for research work.
“I know students would misuse its usage if there are no regulations so I will first call for that before we allow phones in school. Otherwise, students will use them for unnecessary activities such as watching nude videos, chatting, and other things that may negatively affect them rather than being useful for their academic work”.