Randolph A long time ago, in a galaxy … right here, in fact … before the age of cellular telephones in South Africa, a lone boy in full school uniform stood at an empty bus stop. It was 8pm, and he breathed a sigh of relief as the headlights on a familiar car swept over him.
I was in Grade 12 in 1994. Cellphones had only just hit the country, and considering their vast expense, were not a possibility in my household. At the time of that event, I wish I'd had some way to contact my mother to tell her I wouldn't be able to catch the bus home, because I only returned from the English Olympiad class after 5pm. I was penniless however, and simply walked to the bus stop to wait for my mother. She would eventually notice my absence and come to find me.
And now, looking back 12 years later, having experienced that lonely bus stop event more than once, I still think kids don't need cellphones at school. My life would have been a little easier with a prepaid telephone card, but it never required the expense, irritation, and now pornographic medium, of the cellphone.
I taught at a private school last year, and confiscated cellphones almost daily – and I was just one teacher, teaching four grades.
The most recent news talks of pupils in primary schools, downloading pornography onto their phones and bragging about it at school. Phones are also linked to cheating, bullying, and transmitting videos and pictures of themselves. One story has it that a student filmed herself having sex with a teacher.
It's disgusting. I believe that the only reason (if any) that children should have a cellphone in the first place, is as a way to get hold of their parents in an emergency. That's all. That's coming from the guy who stood on the border of Johannesburg's CBD in 1994, at 8pm, all alone. For goodness sake, get a prepaid phone card. Our monopoly telecoms provider has card phones, and they're not expensive. R20 could last you a month if necessary.
Get rid of cellphones in schools. Have a safety locker at the front door, label the phone properly, and that's the end of that. There is NO reason that a child needs a cellphone during school hours.