Mobile phones in schools: To ban or not to ban? An investigation in UK schools

By Carmen Pannone, University of Cagliari, Italy

The use of mobile phones in schools has ignited debates, with some advocating for a complete ban, and others arguing for their integration as educational tools. Yet there has been an absence of academic research examining the impact of mobile phones on the performance of secondary school students. A 2016 study by Beland and Murphy explored the consequences of schools implementing a ban on mobile phones on student test scores in the UK, where there is no government policy regarding phone use in schools. This autonomy in mobile phone policies has resulted in various approaches to the issue. The researchers leverage these differences using a difference-in-differences (DID) estimation strategy, comparing changes in test scores across and within schools before and after the introduction of mobile phone bans, defined as being in place when a school restricts their use on its premises.

The two researchers were able to create a dataset that tracked students from the end of primary school to the completion of their compulsory educational journey (at 16 years old) between 2001 and 2011. They correlated this dataset with information regarding mobile phone policies, collected through a survey conducted in high schools in four major cities in England (Birmingham, Leicester, London, and Manchester). After receiving feedback from 91 schools, the researchers found that most bans were introduced after 2005, with only one school in the sample not restricting the use of mobile phones, and no school reversing their phone policy during the survey period.

When comparing changes over time, student achievement at age 16 significantly increased post-policy compared to pre-policy. Results showed that, on average, student performance in the General Certificates of Secondary Education test significantly increased after the ban (ES = +0.07, p < 0.1), with varying effects on different types of students. The ban mainly benefitted low-achievers, with no impact on high-achievers, and led to higher results for students with special educational needs and those eligible for free school meals, especially in schools reporting high compliance. This study illustrates that a highly multipurpose technology, such as mobile phones, can have a negative impact on productivity through distraction, especially for low-achievers, suggesting that the consequences of mobile phones in schools should not be underestimated.