Sask. education minister confident in cell phone classroom policy

One week before school is back in session, Saskatchewan’s education minister is confident teachers will be able to successfully implement the province’s new cell phone policy when students return to the classroom.

“I’ve heard from several teachers all over the province and I think there’s a bit of a relief,” said Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill. “Let’s be clear here, there were already some classrooms and schools in the province that had restricted cell phones in some respect. I guess the governments goal here is we want to make sure our classrooms are as distraction free as possible.”

Cockrill thinks the cell phone policy will help teachers be able to teach in the classroom better and also provide a better learning environment for students.

The biggest question surrounding the new provincial cell phone policy in schools will be how to enforce it? But Cockrill suggested schools and teachers are working together to make sure things will go smoothly.

“There’s obviously going to be a learning and adjustment period early on whenever you institute a new policy like this, but again our hope is everyone is working together to remove as many distractions in schools as possible,” he explained.

“Based on my school visits last year, I saw many different ways that this was already being enforced. Some teachers had a shoe rack, a lock box, some just asked for kids to put it away in their backpack or their locker,” he added. “Details like that I think are best left up to the individual school community and the individual teachers, but at the end of the day we want to limit those distractions.”

Cockrill said even talking to a principal in his riding that the policy and how it is implemented could look different from classroom to classroom.

As for back to school, Cockrill expects things to be a lot smoother than last year when the province and teachers were trying to negotiate a new deal.

“It’s hard to see summer end, but it’s also an exciting time. I think what I’m excited to see is we have a school year starting without the threat of sanctions. We have binding arbitration happening with the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation happening in December,” he said. “I’m hoping it’s a more normal school year than the last one.”

Because there is binding arbitration scheduled between the teachers and province, Cockrill doesn’t expect there to be sanctions brought forward by teachers.

High School Tourism Course

On Tuesday, the province also announced that it will be creating a new course called Tourism 10, 20 and Tourism 30 in its high schools.

A new partnership between the province and Tourism Saskatchewan will invest $40,000 to provide a work placement coordinator who will support students taking the courses to get work placement opportunities near them.

The materials covered in the courses will include accommodation, food and beverage, recreation and entertainment, transportation and travel services.

Students taking the 20 and 30 level courses will take 50 hours of online theory and 50 hours of work placement at a local business.