By Maura Bowman

A SCOTTISH teachers’ conference yesterday failed to back moves to clamp down on the menace of mobile phones in schools—because delegates could not agree on how tough a line to take.

The issue has hit the headlines recently, with stories of teachers and pupils being humiliated by “happy slapping” incidents filmed in schools and posted on the internet.

In light of that, two motions had been tabled at the Scottish AGM of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) at the Apex Hotel in Dundee.

One motion called on the Scottish Executive to support schools in enforcing responsible use and implement strict sanctions for misuse of phones, and the other demanding an outright ban on mobile phones in the classroom.

However, with supporters of each motion unable to persuade their opposite numbers to change their stance, both were ultimately rejected by the meeting.

Nevertheless, the clear feeling in the hall was that this was a problem that would not go away and had to be dealt with.

Moving for restrictions on the use of phones in schools, Glasgow teacher Martin Carrigan acknowledged that the matter has been aired before but, he said, nothing has changed, other than advances in technology that allow photographs to be posted on websites within seconds of being filmed.

He said phones are now part of everyday life and asked the meeting to accept that it would be unworkable to have an outright ban, which would only lead to a heavier workload for whoever had to enforce it.

A clampdown on the use of phones could be more easily enforced, he urged, with phones confiscated from the minority of children who misuse them and only returned on receipt of a letter from their parents.

However, John Henvey, from South Lanarkshire, rejected the idea that only the minority of children were involved, saying that misuse is becoming more prevalent and, “Kids are actually running riot with them.”

He moved for a total ban in the classroom and said he felt it should be classed a health and safety hazard.

Holding up his own mobile phone, he told delegates, “This, to me, is a weapon going into the classroom because it’s inflicting stress on teachers and pupils and it’s harmful—very, very harmful.”

He warned that pupils could take voice and film recordings and “mash it up” to give a different impression of what had happened.

Mr Henvey said one of his own colleagues had been filmed sitting at his computer during a lesson.

He was, in fact, finding more problems for the class to do but the result had ended up on television and “when you see it, it looks pretty bad,” he said.

Another teacher, Tom Kerr from Glasgow, said he has been teaching for 37 years and had never been faced with violence until he was almost assaulted after telling a pupil to end a call on his mobile phone.

However, some teachers said that phones could actually be useful teaching tools.

Ian Wishart, from east Lothian, said they had a place to play in keeping in touch with pupils on geo-graphy field trips, for example, while Perth and Kinross delegate Ian McCubbin said most children use their phones responsibly.

Angus representative David Lingard pointed out that in rural areas mobile phones were useful as an emergency back-up when travel arrangements fell through.

On a different tack, Ann Attridge, from Skye and Lochalsh, expressed concern that pupils appear to be becoming unable to differentiate between text speak and standard English.

The failure of conference to come to a firm decision on the issue was particularly ironic as the union’s Scottish president had started the day by highlighting the problem.

In his opening address, Bill Cook said he was not obsessed with discipline, as some of his colleagues were.

However, he asked how difficult it could be for the Government to adopt a simple policy on “electronica.”

“Ban electronica from the classroom. How difficult is that?” he asked.

Mr Cook also called on the Government to produce figures for the numbers of newly-qualified teachers who have completed their guaranteed probationary year and been unable to find permanent posts.

He suggested that the demand for teachers was moving from a buyers’ to a sellers’ market, with worrying implications for pay rates in the profession.

“It might be that the Government knew exactly what it was doing in training this over-large number of teachers,” he suggested.

“All those teachers without a job will have the effect of driving down pay demands.”

The issue of cyber bullying was also addressed by the union’s national assistant general secretary Roger Darke. Giving an example of the misuse of technology by pupils, he said, “The taking of a picture of one of their teachers and super-imposing it on an obscene photograph and then publishing that—there have to be consequences for those pupils.”

Mr Darke said the union also had to press for sanctions against children who make false allegations against their teachers.