Kokkola Cell Phone Ban: Four Students Share Their Experiences
The cell phone ban came into force in Kokkola in its most absolute form: the phone should not be used even during middle or food lessons. Yle asked how the school started without cell phones.
The school days without a cellphone were accustomed to surprisingly fast, and the change brought a lot of good with it.
This is how the seventh and eighth grade of Kokkola say Inka Pynttäri, Olga Korkiala, Sonja Hagström and Sisu Räsänenwho have become accustomed to school without cell phones for a few days.
Young people have talked more with friends, it is easier to concentrate in classes and the days pass quickly.
“It’s nicer to see people when they really talk to each other and don’t look at the screen all the time,” says Sonja Hagström.
Olga Korkiala has even noticed the difference in physical well -being.
– On the Seiska, when I used my cellphone, it was often my head sore after school. Now there has been no headache.
The change in law prohibited the use of unauthorized smart devices in lessons in Finnish elementary schools from the beginning of August.
Municipalities and schools can take a tougher line if they wish. For example, in Kokkola and Varkaus, there is a total ban, that is, phones are also kept in a tray or backpack during breaks and eating.
Yle gathered online experiences with the first cellular school days. 43 schoolchildren and teachers from all over Finland responded.
Many students, like Kokkola youth, said they had been more with friends. Concentration has also improved.
Focusing is better when there is no phone nearby. Also, teachers no longer point out about phones when they are collected.
Nella Leino, Sports Park Upper Secondary School, Kouvola
According to another experience, the change has made school days more troubled because those who used to be on the phone now do something else disturbing.
Reaching friends difficult
Some young people are concerned about the increase in loneliness when there is no cellphone to browse.
Reaching friends during the school day is also difficult.
“You have to remember to agree in advance where you can see and when, otherwise if a guy is in the second grade it is really difficult to go through the whole school, where it is,” says Olga Korkiala.
It has been difficult for some young people to find the right class because the timetable could not be looked at from Wilma. In Kokkola, the matter has been resolved by distributing traditional paper timetables to students.
There are other practical puzzles of cellularity.
“You can’t just walk in the mirror in the classroom if you want to look at what it looks like or if you want to watch the clock when there is no clock in all classes,” says Sonja Hagström.
To do for the breaks
Restricting the use of a mobile phone has also changed school practices.
The Isokylä school in Kokkola is currently announced in the central radio alongside Wilma. The lessons are mainly used for pen and paper. Phones or school laptops are only highlighted if they are needed in teaching.
Assistant principal Jukka Ylimäki says that hours have calmed down and the interruptions have decreased. For him, students are more social than before.
More than half of the teachers who responded to YLE’s survey believe that the ban on cell phones has changed the school for the better.
Students no longer have the feeling that they are passing by something important when the guys have been able to agree or joke for some hour, for example, in a snap.
Veera resident, Kainuu
Even if you got the law that the cell phones and all other screens would be in the park somewhere other than sleeping space starting from 9pm to 9pm. Children and adolescents sleep chronically for years too little. It has a direct impact on schooling: cannot concentrate, memory does not work as it should, brain development takes a hit.
Jukka Soini, Kurikka
Could a cellphone be a reward?
Deputy Principal Jukka Ylimäki has not heard the complaint that the mobile phones can be used in some other Finnish schools. Uniform rules at city schools make it easier.
– You don’t have to fight, even though you want that phone. It is said that we could not get a prize to use the phone. Yes, it has somehow grown in the hand, Ylimäki says.