Education experts say smartphones should be used as learning tools, rather than being completely banned in schools.
Advantage Learn CEO James Lees says most South African learners use their phones more for entertainment than education.
He, however, says smartphones can help learners access educational content and support their studies when used correctly.
Lees says parents and schools should guide learners on responsible cellphone use.
“From our perspective as an organisation, we do a lot of work in this. We see the use of phones as quite a big opportunity if the control and usage are done very deliberately. We see them as being devices that can actually solve a lot of the challenges that we face as a nation in the education space with lack of resources, lack of access to teachers, et cetera. So, it depends on how the school lenses it.”
[COMING UP] : As South Africa debates tighter cellphone controls in schools, the bigger question is not only how much time children spend on their phones, but what they are doing with that time.
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