As a parent and teacher, I fully support banning cell phones in schools.

điện thoại - Ảnh 1. — Students of a high school in Ho Chi Minh City use mobile phones outside the school gate - Photo: TTD

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training has just proposed not allowing students to use mobile phones during recess and during educational activities at school. Students are only allowed to use phones when their subject teachers allow them to perform tasks during class.

As a parent and a teacher, I completely agree with this proposal.

In fact, some schools have strict regulations that students are not allowed to use cell phones during study and play time at school.

Many schools are equipped with phone cabinets. At the beginning of class, students hand in all their phones to the class monitor, put them in the cabinets, and lock them. When school is over, students get their phones back so they can contact their parents to pick them up or book a ride-hailing service. This is a good idea, and parents support it because using phones in class distracts students from their studies.

But not all schools are moving quickly and urgently to limit students' dependence on technology devices.

Therefore, we hope that the proposal of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City will soon become a reality: ban phones to restore connections!

Let's look back at the reality, how many students have enough discipline and self-awareness to keep their "cell phones" in their bags and focus on studying?

Some students will turn smartphones into powerful learning aids, while the rest will be lost in the virtual world .

When the phone screen is constantly flashing, can children focus on solving homework, group activities, or paying attention to teachers' instructions or friends' answers?

Not only does cell phones cause a loss of connection with learning, they also cause students to lose connection with teachers and friends in the classroom.

Facebook is full of likes, TikTok is full of silly videos , and online games are full of fascination, which will always keep children's eyes glued to the screen and their ears tuned out to the sounds of real life.

It's hard for us adults to keep ourselves from getting lost in the virtual world, let alone children who are "not yet full and not yet worried". During recess without teachers, students are sure to be absorbed in surfing the internet and playing games.

The virtual world is full of temptations and unpredictable risks.

Lacking proper guidance and support from adults, children quickly become easy prey for scams and fake news. Quick acquaintances with strangers on the internet push foolish children to run away from home, drop out of school to find easy, high-paying jobs.

Articles that fabricate negative stories are like toxic smoke that infects the young minds and distorts the values of life of many young people.

And school violence cases arise from the internet itself. From a few negative comments and a few likes, they quickly turn into gang fights recorded by phones with loud laughter and offensive words.

How many beautiful stories in school have been overlooked when children are absorbed in mobile screens.

Questions from friends when seeing sad eyes; teasing jokes of the "first devil, second spirit, third student" age; an exciting football match with cheers; groups of heads huddled together to play volleyball, marbles, flip cards, hopscotch… are always the glue that binds friendships.

Only when mobile screens are less present, will student friendships have a chance to sprout green.

Therefore, the proposal to ban cell phones during recess and school educational activities needs to be quickly implemented so that students can reconnect with their lessons, connect with friends, and connect with kindness in the school environment.