'Hold firm, Norma Foley - your phone pouch plan has much support on the ground'

Teachers spend too much time and energy policing phone bans, the pouch idea is worth €9million if it's a practical solution to a scourge in schools

We’re so used to being outraged by Government waste that every spend now seems like a scandal.

After the bike shed, the hut, the prefabs and the children’s hospital, we’re hyper-aware of State over-spending –and rightly so.

The squandering at the taxpayer’s expense is a disgrace, with no accountability or consequences.

We need a fall guy and now we’ve found it – the €9million phone pouches, to drive devices out of schools.

READ MORE - Taoiseach accuses Sinn Fein of 'hypocrisy' over opposition to phone pouch scheme

READ MORE - Education Minister Norma Foley defends 'scandalous' €9m budget allocation for phone pouches

Forcing the Government into a U-turn on this is getting more about scalp-hunting than education spending.

But let’s pause before we take our reasonable frustrations out on something that will transform teens’ lives.

I was indignant when I heard about it at first, a reflex response. €9million for kids to put their phones in a pouch? Madness!

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. This is a practical solution to the sinister omnipresence of phones in class.

Talking to teachers over the past 24 hours, they can see the good in it.

They assumed it was more bike shed BS before they realised it would eradicate the biggest problem in the modern classroom, by locking phones down throughout the school day.

The figure of €9million seemed ludicrous, but there are nearly half a million students in secondary school and the pouches are about €20 each.

I used to think schools had the whole phone thing sorted, with most having bans. But I wasn’t considering the time, energy and effort spent enforcing it.

Phones are addictions and as such they have to be treated like any other addictive substance, cut out completely.

Otherwise teachers are spending far too much time monitoring it, policing it, and following disciplinary procedures such as confiscation and return.

The lock-up pouches will work as they prevent any possibility of use and do away with distraction.

It takes the problem out of teachers’ hands. They say parents are all in favour of schools confiscating phones – until their son or daughter’s phone is taken.

Some get aggressive and threaten all sorts until the phone is given back.

Don’t mind the usual teachers' unions moaning about it. I won’t listen to them since they blocked re-opening for kids with special needs in the pandemic.

They’d be whinging for funds if a school phone ban was announced and no pouches provided.

Critics such as social democrat Gary Gannon haven’t spent any time at the top of a classroom. His framing of the plan as "scandalous waste" and an "answer to a question nobody asked" doesn’t wash.

An initiative to Keep Childhood Smartphone Free involving 420,000 young people as part of their health and wellbeing is not that.

Plenty were asking about how to control this most pressing issue in this era of education, acting as a constant distraction every single day.

But Ms Foley was a teacher for years, as was her FF party leader Micheal Martin. As part of her €12million package on education, she also gave us the best Budget spend of all: free books all the way through school to Leaving Cert, a massive saving for parents and a landmark for equality in education.

She knows what works in schools.

She says currently there is a lack of uniformity to banning phones in schools and the magnetic pouches - used at concerts and courtrooms - will mean a more effective system.

It’s radical, but people are coming around to it. If I were Minister Foley, I’d hold firm.

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