Brainstorming

Yes or No to bringing handphone to school


The handphone is on everybody’s lips nowadays. It is such as a wonderful tool for education, work, information and play that sometimes we wonder how we survived before this. Some people call it the eighth wonder of the world while others think of it as disruptive. So, does a handphone become a wonderful tool or a disruptive tool at school?


For one thing, handphone can be used for emergency calls. When a student feels sick or involved in an accident, the teacher may quickly call the student’s parents and tell them about their son’s condition. This is because the parents’ numbers will already be in the student’s phonebook and the teacher does not have to waste time searching for it in the school students’ database.


On the other side of the coin, bringing the handphone to school may cause unwanted distractions. Students can easily lose focus in their lesson when they receive new messages or have incoming calls. The school may instruct the students to turn off their handphones during lesson but, in reality, there are not many students who really adhere to school rules and regulations.


Secondly, there are many useful functions for the handphone. It can normally become a calculator, a music player and also a unit converter. Sometimes, students use the handphone to calculate numbers in their Mathematics lesson, and some other times, they use it to convert numbers from meters to inches in their Science lesson.


On the other hand, the students act immaturely and misuse the handphone functions. There are many instances where students use the handphone to take and share pornographic pictures or videos. Irresponsible students might also use their handphone to cheat in examinations. What is more with the handphone’s ability to store so much information in its memory card, the students can put the whole text books in it!


Moreover, the adverse effect on students when they use a handphone at school is the...