CAQ MP Mario Asselin speaks out against the ban on cell phones in schools, as envisaged by Education Minister Bernard Drainville.
Banning cell phones from schools “is tantamount to leaving young people [être] confronted with the uses [des écrans] without the expertise of educators,” argued the Vanier-Les Rivières MP in an exchange with The Duty Wednesday.
The elected official, who is a former school principal, sent a brief to the members of the transpartisan commission on the impacts of screens on young people, whose work is to begin Thursday at the National Assembly. Mr. Asselin recalls that he was “one of the first in Quebec to use a blog.” He advocates for controlled use of digital tools in the classroom.
School should not be a place where screens are banned, but rather “our best ally to act on screen time,” writes the MP. “We need to do less to reduce screen time among young people than to take BETTER care of screens in our schools,” he adds.
A debate “off to a bad start”
The Legault government has so far banned cell phones in classrooms. Education Minister Bernard Drainville has also said he is “thinking” about the possibility of banning these phones everywhere in schools. This is a long-standing request from the Parti Québécois.
“I found that [le débat] was off to a bit of a bad start with the proposal on the table to completely ban cell phones in schools, Mr. Asselin explained in an interview. “The important thing is to make young people aware of the fact that there are time-wasters that must be banned, but that there are educational applications that must continue. Teachers have the training to be able to distinguish the difference between the two,” the MP argued. He welcomes the appearance of pouches that allow students to leave their phones out of reach when they are not needed in class.
In short, “educational institutions (from preschool to university) can make a big difference in the lives of young people in terms of screen supervision and access to content,” writes Mr. Asselin in his thesis. “It is more important than ever to get them involved!” he says.
Established at the request of the Prime Minister, the Special Commission on the Impacts of Screens and Social Media on the Health and Development of Young People is set to begin its work on Thursday. The cross-party commission will be led by Amélie Dionne (Coalition avenir Québec), Enrico Ciccone (Parti libéral du Québec), Alexandre Leduc (Québec solidaire) and Pascal Bérubé (Parti québécois). Among other things, it is expected to consider ways to regulate access to social media and video games, in addition to studying measures to regulate screens in schools.
The commission’s work is expected to continue until September 26. Around thirty stakeholders, including Meta and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, are expected to participate in the consultations.