Conservatives want to ban phones from schools (Image: Getty)
Tories will this week force a vote to ban mobile phones in schools. They will challenge the Labour Government to back a raft of measures to tackle the harm caused by social media.
will also fight changes to the law governing academies. They want to ensure that failing schools will continue to be forced to become academies.
will also seek to ensure that good schools are not blocked from expanding.
Proposals put forward this week would require all schools in England to have a policy banning children from carrying on using phones during the school day.
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Chief medical officers would be required to publish guidance on social media use by children. A plan for research into the impact of social media on children’s wellbeing would also be required within a year of the legislation becoming law.
Shadow education minister Neil O’Brien said: “Labour are ready and willing to set school standards, attainment, and results in this country back by two decades, and all for the sake of their own ideological dogma. They claim that these measures will benefit children’s wellbeing, but yet refuse to back our plans to ban mobile phones in schools, just because it doesn’t meet their own petty politics.
“Once again what is best for pupils, parents and teachers seems to be bottom of Labour’s list of priorities.”
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Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott said: “The Government has no evidence that removing freedoms from academies will improve a single school. Stopping good schools from being able to expand will mean parental choice is taken away, failing schools are propped up and mediocrity is rewarded.
“Labour are letting ideology get in the way of what works best. This is education vandalism, and it will have long lasting damage on children’s schooling.”