Dubai could learn from California on smartphones in schools

Alamy/Olaf Doering

One of the big news items in Los Angeles, where I just spent a marvelous long weekend, is a new California state law to limit or prohibit the use of smartphones by students during the school day.

As any parent of a teenager in Dubai will testify, this is a vexed subject. We think our kids are using their phones too much at home, but are often at a loss as to how to enforce restrictions.

Maybe if the education authorities here took a lead, like California – the largest US state to approve such a law so far – it would help us to win back some ground in the battle against the ubiquitous, intrusive smartphone?

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There have been plenty of scientific studies that show the detrimental effects of mobile phone usage among teenagers: distraction, loss of concentration, peer-group alienation and (in extremis) vindictive bullying, with sometimes tragic consequences.

Set against those cons is the simple fact that all of us, children or adults, are increasingly reliant on our mobiles for the essentials of everyday life. 

For school students, smartphones can be invaluable tools for education, as well as vital communication channels in case of emergency such as sickness or late transport arrangements.

Try to find your Uber pickup in a crowded school forecourt at home time without a smartphone, for example.

LA versus Dubai is not a straight comparison. Some schools in the Californian city have much bigger problems than a student on TikTok during the maths class, such as organised gang fights in schools, often arranged via smartphones, and even the occasional incidence of gun violence. Unthinkable in the UAE.

Maybe because of the bigger overall threat to school security, some LA schools are taking pretty draconian measures to restrict mobile use, such as requiring all students to put their phones in secure magnetic pouches on arrival at school.

Once sealed, these can only be opened outside the phone-free zone via a machine a bit like the ones sales assistants use to remove security tags.

That might seem neat and simple, but some of the little rascals have found ways around it.

The LA Times reports that one school in south LA spent $12,000 on 750 of these gadgets, only to find that the kids were placing mobile-shaped blocks of wood inside and continuing on Instagram in class all day. You have to snigger.

Other proposed measures, such as secure smartphone lockers, confiscation or outright bans, have all run into enforcement issues at the LA schools that are trialling the restrictions, due to be implemented in 2026.

To find out how Dubai schools are approaching the subject, I spoke in confidence to the head of one of the biggest education groups in the UAE.

It is a hot issue, we agreed, but in a city like Dubai, which prides itself on hi-tech connectivity, it is a “missed opportunity” if all forms of enhanced digital learning are not explored.

“It is really at the teachers’ discretion. Sometimes students have to use those features, like calculators, voice recorders and video that all mobiles have these days, and of course in cases of sickness or other emergencies children must be allowed to contact their parents,” I was told.

“But the rule is that phones should not be used at all during the school day without teacher permission.”

The education profession has other tools to monitor and discourage illicit mobile usage, such as CCTV surveillance to detect those little huddles of mobile misuse, firewalls to block inappropriate internet sites in the school vicinity, and specific classes on responsible phone usage.

But should the Dubai authorities be taking a stronger line on the abuse of smartphones in school, like California?

There appears to be no current official guidance from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), the education regulator in Dubai. (I asked KHDA for clarity, but none was forthcoming at time of publication.) 

Maybe Dubai schools already have the matter in hand, and their “teacher knows best” policy is the most efficient and flexible way to deal with the issue.

But I, as a parent of a mobile-obsessed teenager in the emirate, would like to see the authorities take a firmer position on this, for the sake of our children’s education – and to reinforce my authority in dealing with the issue at home.

Frank Kane is Editor-at-Large of AGBI and an award-winning business journalist. He acts as a consultant to the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia and is a media adviser to First Abu Dhabi Bank of the UAE