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Mobile Phones Disrupt African Classrooms, But Businesses Give Incentives

Mobile Phones Disrupt African Classrooms, But Businesses Give Incentives

It’s not just about ringtones any more.

Teachers and students are using their phones increasingly in African classrooms, not just to talk and text but to check Facebook, according African and U.K. researchers, TheConversation reported.

And some business are giving them incentives — like waiving data charges — if they use certain online resources for schoolwork.

Mobile phone use in African schools has become a leading issue, echoing concerns around the world. Class disruption from students’ phones used to be mostly from ring tones when calls were received. Now, for those with smartphones, messaging on WhatsApp or checking Facebook have become common classroom activities, TheConversation reported.

Major corporations like Vodacom, parent of Kenya’s Safaricom, are incentivizing children and teachers to use their mobile phones for school.

Vodacom has promised school children free access to online learning materials in Kenya and other African countries, according to a May 2016 CapitalFMreport.

Through its African subsidiaries, the telecom says it will waive all charges for mobile data when children, young people, educators and others access the Instant Schools for Africa educational resources.

Basic phones are most common among younger African, but more students have smartphones that can connect to the Internet – and they’e taking them to school whether they’re allowed or not, TheConversation reported.

African children often borrow phones from each other, parents, family members and neighbors.

Researchers conducted a survey in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa for children age 9 to 18 that showed mobile phone use is much higher than ownership figures might suggest.

The study was funded by the U.K.’s Economic and Social Research Council and Department for International Development. It covered many aspects of young people’s phone use.

Researchers conducted 1,500-plus face-to-face interview with young people, teachers, parents and community members in 24 locations – eight in each country — ranging from poor city neighborhoods to remote rural villages.

A questionnaire followed with about 3,000 young people age 9 to 18 and 1,500 age 19 to 25 in the same locations.

Turns out teachers’ phone use in class is just as disruptive as students’. Teachers said they take incoming calls or they make a call, and maybe step outside or take the call in class. The end result? The lesson is interrupted and “you forget what you are going to deliver.”

According to the survey, mobile phone ownership was lowest in Malawi, the poorest of the three countries, with 8 percent of student respondents saying they own their own phone, compared with 16 percent in Ghana and 51 percent in South Africa. Nonetheless, in Malawi 35 percent of children said they had used a phone in the week before the survey. In Ghana the figure was 42 percent and in South Africa it was 77 percent.

Teachers use phones too

In Malawi, 60 percent of enrolled pupils said they had seen their teacher using a phone during a lesson in the week before the survey. The corresponding figure for Ghana was 66 percent and for South Africa 88 percent. Administrators said they found it difficult to regulate mobile phone use among teachers.

Other problems include disturbing levels of student bullying and harassment, TheConversation reported. said they had received unwanted, unpleasant or upsetting calls or texts. In the survey of enrolled students who use a phone, almost as many boys as girls said they had received unwanted, unpleasant or upsetting calls or texts:

  • 16 percent in Ghana
  • 28 percent in Malawi
  • 55 percent in South Africa

Distribution and viewing of pornography is also widespread, older boys said. A few students as young as primary school age mentioned sexting.