Meeting of the Parliament 01 October 2025 [Draft]
I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of Pam Duncan-Glancy’s motion, which calls for mobile phones to be banned for learners in school classrooms. We have had to bring the debate to the chamber because of the continued inaction and dithering from the Scottish Government.
I declare an interest, in that I have two primary school-age children. They do not have mobile phones, because I do not think that it is appropriate for them to have them yet, but I very much recognise what Willie Rennie said about peer-group pressure.
I fully appreciate and understand that every parent will make choices about whether and when it is appropriate to give their child a mobile phone, with the best interests of their child in mind. I particularly understand that many parents give their children a phone for safety reasons, so that they can contact their child should there be an emergency. Many children take mobile phones to school for that reason. The proposal would not prevent that, but it would prevent the misuse of those mobile phones in the classroom.
Schools and classrooms should be a space for learning, growing and flourishing, but mobile phone use is a known distraction in the classroom, which is limiting the ability of teachers to teach and learners to learn. Not only that but, as we have already heard, bullying continues to be a problem in Scottish schools, with an increase in cyberbullying, which follows children inside and outside school, and sickening examples of vicious attacks in schools being filmed on mobile phones and spread across social media.
It is for all those reasons that Scottish Labour would implement a nationwide ban on mobile phones in classrooms in order to make schools safe and attentive places for learning again.
It is important to listen to what teachers and parents are saying. I have been listening to teachers and parents in my area, where good progress has been made to limit the misuse of mobile phones in classrooms. I have to say that the overwhelming majority of teachers and parents to whom I speak agree with a nationwide ban.
It is also important to listen to the views of young people, who are also saying that mobile phones are causing distractions in the classroom. Having listened to their concerns, I would also say that, of course, there would need to be exemptions for schoolchildren who have caring responsibilities or who need mobile phones for medical reasons, but the assumption would be that the vast majority of children do not require a mobile phone in the classroom. Messaging between pupils, filming in classrooms and doing pranks using mobile phones are unacceptable and should not be tolerated—I would say that they should not be allowed to happen in the first place. That is why we should have a nationwide ban on mobile phones in the classroom.
Of course, there has been progress in a number of areas, but I say to the Scottish Government and the cabinet secretary that we should have a nationwide ban. I also say to the Scottish Government, which has recently announced its support for a ban on greyhound racing—despite there being next to no greyhound racing in Scotland—that we should have a ban that will make a significant difference to Scotland’s children and young people.
It is also not to say that digital learning cannot make a good positive difference to young people’s lives, but it should be done using laptops, tablets and technologies that are specifically designed for learning—not by using kids’ own mobile phones.
On the issue of laptops and devices, as we have just heard from Mr Hoy, let us not forget the SNP manifesto commitment in 2021 to provide every primary and secondary school-age child in Scotland with a laptop or tablet to get online. That pledge was scrapped last year. Mr McLennan said that the Scottish Government was making real progress. Apparently, in 2024, the Scottish Government had issued only 60,000 devices, despite there being 700,000 school pupils. I do not really count that as progress. If we were marking that progress out of 10, the Scottish Government would not even get 1. That is the story of this Government—big promises made and big promises broken; all talk and no action; all spin and no substance.
We have heard a lot about distraction this afternoon. Perhaps the Scottish Government should stop being distracted by the constitution and grievance politics, and focus on the issues that matter. The Scottish Government should introduce a nationwide ban on mobile phones in classrooms, which will make a difference to our children and young people.
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