• Even as artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as ChatGPT are being launched on mobile devices, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), is urging schools around the world to ban smartphones.

• The main reason behind the UNESCO’s decision to worldwide prohibition on smartphones in schools is to reduce the dependence on digital technology and encourage better learning outcomes.
• The excessive use of digital technology or smartphones in educational sector is likely to reduce the educational performance which adversely impacting the children emotional ability.
• Excessive use of technology, including smartphones, tablets or laptops by students both in classrooms and at home, could let to distraction, disruption and potentially negative impact on learning.
• According to the recent study of UNESCO, there is a negative link between excessive digital technology use and student performance.
• The Covid-19 pandemic forced a sudden shift to online.
• UNESCO estimated that more than a billion students globally had to adapt to online learning. But those who have no internet connection, found themselves at a disadvantage.
• The report recognized that while online learning was crucial during the pandemic lockdowns, its benefits are not equally accessible to all.
• The Netherlands will ban mobile phones from classrooms in 2024.
• Schools in Australia’s Tasmania introduced a mobile phone ban in 2020.
• In 2018, France prohibited mobile phones for elementary and middle school students to increase concentration in classrooms and tackle cyberbullying.
• While India does not have a legal ban on smartphones in schools, state governments and school administrations take their own call on the matter.

• UNESCO recommended that the government should focus on the points to improve the education around the world with least use of digital technology.
• The Government should keep the learners first than anything else.
• The UNESCO’s report stressed that not all advances in technology equate to progress, warning against blindly adopting digital means in education.
• It urged the policymakers to maintain a balance and not overlook the social dimension of education, which thrives to face-to-face teaching and interaction.

Source- Live mint
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