Edinburgh schools mobile phone ban goes ahead but pupils must wait months for pouches
‘Every school will have a pouch system in place by the start of October at the latest’ - Cllr James Dalgleish
Edinburgh's ban on mobile phones in schools starts on Wednesday - but the lockable pouches in which pupils must place their phones won't be available on day one.
The first batch of pouches is expected to arrive within two weeks, but some of the city’s 23 high schools might not get them until the start of October.
Education convener James Dalgleish said it was "frustrating" but the delay resulted from the procurement process and ensuring value for money for taxpayers.
He said the ban would come into force anyway, with pupils using existing lockable cabinets to put phones away during the day or having to hand them into teachers.
He said: "A lot of schools already have some form of ban, so there won't be a lot of difference until the pouches come in."
Under the new ban, which will apply in all secondary schools, pupils will have to put their phones in the lockable pouches at the start of the school day and will not be allowed to access them until they are leaving. There will be exemptions for pupils with medical and other needs. And head teachers have discretion to allow S5 and S6 pupils to use their phones at breaks and during independent study times.
Pupils at two high schools - Portobello and Queensferry - will have pouches right from the start since they have already been using them in a trial scheme. But everywhere else, pupils will have to wait anything from two weeks to two months before the pouches are available.
Cllr Dalgleish said: "Between this month and October we will be phasing in the pouch system. We have been working very hard over the school summer holidays to navigate through the procurement process and in a matter of two weeks we will have pouches being phased in.
“It will take a little bit of time to phase them in, but every school will have a pouch system in place by the start of October at the latest.
“It's a balance between getting pouches into schools as quickly as possible and getting value for the taxpayer. There could have been other options where we could have got them into schools more quickly, but that would not have been the best value for the taxpayer.
“It's frustrating because we have been talking for so long about pouches and the benefits they will bring. But it's just about being patient and getting it right and then seeing the benefit of what we are doing.”
He said the purchase of the pouches would be within the £400,000 budget set for the purpose.
The council needs nearly 25,000 pouches to provide one for every high school pupil. Cllr Dalgleish was unsure how many would be supplied in the first batch, but said he understood that once they began to arrive they would come “thick and fast”.
The pouches will be allocated on a geographical basis, with schools in the same area receiving them at the same time.
Cllr Dalgleish said the council was finalising details of its exemption policies, which will allow pupils with medical and other needs to access their phone during the day.
He said he was confident the ban on mobile phones during the school day would work even without the pouches at first and that a lot of schools were already operating some form of ban.
But he said: “For me it's about making sure it works better. We think the pouch system allows some of the teacher-pupil conflict to be resolved.”
SNP education spokesman Euan Hyslop said phasing in the pouches was an operational decision about how the new policy could best be implemented, but added it would have been easier if everything had been in place ahead of the new term.
“From a school management perspective, it slightly muddies the waters if they re having to implement a ban without additional resources and then introduce the pouches later. I’m sure schools will manage and the clear messaging about what is expected now in schools will help.”