Fraser Institute: Smartphone ban in N.B. classrooms can’t come soon enough

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According to common sense and the evidence, smartphones have no place in New Brunswick classrooms.

Unfortunately, New Brunswick is already behind many other provinces on this issue. The British Columbia government announced in January that it’s banning phones in government public school classrooms. Ontario restricted the use of smartphones in classrooms in 2019 and that policy may be strengthened as it appears it doesn’t go far enough. Quebec banned phones in government public school classrooms late last year.

And yet, while New Brunswick is undergoing a variety of educational reforms, a smartphone ban isn’t among them—but it should be.

A majority of Canadians polled believe that removing phones from classrooms is the right move, with eight in 10 Canadians saying phones should be banned from public school classrooms “to reduce distractions in the learning environment.”

Moreover, according to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, 80 per cent of Canadian students feel distracted by the use of their own digital devices (e.g. smartphones) in math class—that’s higher than the average among high-income OECD countries. And among all OECD countries (including Canada), 59 per cent of students said they feel distracted by the smartphone use of other students in math classe.

How does this affect student performance? According to the PISA report, students who were not distracted by smartphones in class scored 15 points higher in math than students who reported distraction by a digital device. (For context, PISA characterizes a 20-point drop in student test scores as one year of lost learning.)

In New Brunswick, from 2003 to 2022, PISA math scores—which tell us how 15-year-olds in the province are doing in math—have plummeted by 44 points over that period. Per PISA’s characterization, that’s more than two years of lost learning. In other words, New Brunswick 15-year-olds in 2022 are two years behind where they were just two decades earlier, in math proficiency.

To make matters worse, New Brunswick students trail the national average by 29 points. That means New Brunswick students are about one and a half years behind the national average in math.

Clearly, the province has some significant catching up to do. Engineering and math jobs are increasingly important, and it’s a disservice to New Brunswick kids if they’re not able to compete.

Banning smartphones in elementary and high school classrooms might solicit eyerolls from students, but polling shows parents and other New Brunswickers support it. It’s common sense, it’s supported by research, and New Brunswick students deserve an academic boost.

Paige MacPherson is associate director of education policy at the Fraser Institute, and Alex Whalen is associate director of Atlantic Canada Prosperity at the Fraser Institute