A debate is ongoing as to whether students are to carry mobile phones to school or not. These are secondary students we are speaking about. Mr. Sossion, the KNUT secretary general has that opinion.
In his address to the media he argued that learning would be improved by use of mobile phones. Learning would be digitized when students have mobile phones, he added. Besides, he believes that research would be easier to students when they have mobile phones. That implies that these hones are to be digitized.
This move that the secretary general is taking is misguiding. The secretary general has never made sense to me since he lifted the protest by teachers ho were demanding an increase in salary last year. He is now taking a position that mobile phones did not aid in cheating in the previous examinations. Who will believe these shifting positions? He needs to get serious.
Reasons why mobile phones should not be accepted in school are numerous. First, the government has not rolled a syllabus that would require a secondary school student to do research. What for? Their education is all in the text books. They do not take on projects like college or university students. What would an internet enabled phone help them with?
Students have discovered social sites like Facebook and Whatsup. During the last year’s examination, papers were leaked through these sites. How then will we curb the problem of examinations leakage?
Finally, digitizing the education sector requires a raining to both teachers and students. Communication skills will involve research both in the physical and digital library. Before the digital research is effected, students need to learn some research styles and ethics of the same.
For Sossion let him not daydream of this as a way of digitizing the education sector.