Gillian Keegan defends new guidance to ‘ban’ mobile phones in schools

Gillian Keegan defends new guidance to 'ban' mobile phones in schoolsGMB/ITV

Transcript

00:00 Teachers have bigger problems on their hands.

00:03 They don't need you repeating guidance ad nauseam

00:07 on something they can already do.

00:09 Just to be clear, Susanna, we're not repeating guidance.

00:13 The guidance, this will be the first time we've issued guidance,

00:16 but we do know that many schools do have mobile phone bans in place,

00:20 but they're not consistent and they are allowing phone use

00:23 in break times, in lunch times, etc.

00:26 So it is a change and it is empowering.

00:28 And I asked headteachers, you know, I'm here to help headteachers,

00:31 not to do things that don't make a difference to them.

00:34 But you're not instructing headteachers, are you?

00:36 And I asked them, would this empower them?

00:37 And they said this would empower them.

00:39 We expect schools to follow our guidance.

00:41 We issue a lot of guidance and we expect schools to follow our guidance.

00:44 And they do follow our guidance. We know that they do.

00:46 And if they don't? In terms of other things that are ongoing...

00:49 If they don't ban phones at schools, what happens to them?

00:51 They do...

00:52 They do follow our guidance.

00:56 In fact, they wait for our guidance because it empowers them.