Jana Scheepers
The use of cellphones in schools has been a point of international discussion, with the discourse recently shifting to South Africa where more and more schools have opted for a cellphone-free campus, most recently the Cape Town schools Jan van Riebeeck High School and South African College High School (Sacs) at the beginning of the year.
Although schools within the Drakenstein municipal area have not fully jumped on the bandwagon, some have revised their cellphone policy and included stricter regulations.
According to Athol Ontong, a teacher at Paulus Joubert Secondary School in Paarl East, the school is following a newly-adopted policy of allowing high-school learners to carry their phones with them throughout the school day, but only to use during break times.
“If a teacher sees a learner with a phone during class it is confiscated and a fine of R200 is payable, and if the learner cannot pay the fine the phone can remain confiscated indefinitely.”
“Because the learners do not want their phone to be confiscated for so long, they comply with the school’s phone policy,” Ontong said.
According to Carin Venter, headmaster at LK Zeeman in Amstelhof, the school has adopted a new phone policy since the start of 2024 which, similar to Paulus Joubert, includes that learners are only allowed to use their phones during break times.
Venter adds that if a learner is caught with a cellphone during class times, the phone is confiscated until the next day.
Pieter Terblanch, acting principal of Labori High School explained that their phone policy entails a strict no-phone rule during class times, but can be used during break times.
“Sometimes the teachers will ask the learners to look up something on the internet, and only with their permission, the learners are then allowed to use their phones during class times,” Terblanche said.
According to Nadine Prinsloo, a spokesperson at the Paarl Gimnasium High School, learners are allowed to use their phones during breaks, however it should be switched off during classes as well as school gatherings.
Paarl Boys’ High and Paarl Girls’ High School, did not respond to the newspaper’s enquiries.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) released a phone policy in 2018 which says that “cellphones and mobile devices have to be managed in an educationally sound manner and every school should have in place a policy on the use of cellphones and mobile devices
“While there are some negative perceptions about the use of cellphones in schools, the use of mobile devices for education can outweigh the disadvantages,” according to Kerry Mauchline, a spokesperson of the WCED.
“However, the use of mobile devices needs to be managed thoughtfully and responsibly to ensure the protection of our children.”
Mauchline emphasised that schools within the province are free to adopt their own individual phone policy.
