The Scottish government should roll out a national ban on mobile phones in schools, according to shadow education spokesperson Miles Briggs.
The Conservative MSP is also calling on the government to focus on “empowering” teachers to take action in response to disruptive behaviour.
Mr Briggs, speaking ahead of a Tory-led Scottish Parliament debate on school violence on Wednesday, said that violence was “out of control in Scotland’s classrooms”, but that teachers had “one hand tied behind their backs because they simply haven’t been empowered to take action against disruptive pupils”.
“Many teachers, pupils and other staff now fear going to school each day, which is a position we should never have reached,” he added.
Tackling behaviour in Scottish schools
Mr Briggs said Wednesday’s debate would seek to “finally bring some common sense back to Scottish schools”, starting by “dealing effectively with disruptive pupils, empowering teachers and rolling out a mobile phone ban across classrooms”.
He added that schools should be “a safe place for pupils to learn and teachers to teach”, but that this “simply isn’t the case right now”.
published by the Scottish government in November 2023 found “a general worsening of pupil behaviour” in Scottish schools since 2016.
The government held a series of summits on violence in schools in the wake of this research and promised a plan to tackle worsening behaviour.
The plan, however, was much delayed. When finally published in August 2024, it highlighted that there had been “challenges” with the move away from punitive approaches to behaviour towards relationships-based approaches in Scottish schools since 2016.
However, there was still “general support for relationships-based approaches” and the plan advocated “a relational style characterised by high warmth and support, high standards and high expectations”.
The EIS teaching union welcomed some aspects of the plan at the time, but said more funding and resources were needed.
On the same day that the behaviour plan was published, the Scottish government released . It concluded that a national ban was not “appropriate or feasible” - but said schools and councils could “introduce restrictions and limitations” if they wished.
Violence ‘completely unacceptable’
Responding to Mr Briggs’ comments, a Scottish government spokesperson said violence and abusive behaviour towards pupils or staff was “completely unacceptable”.
The spokesperson added that all councils should ensure that schools have policies in place to “determine clearly what action should be taken to address challenging behaviour and bullying”.
Wednesday’s debate in the Scottish Parliament is due to start after 2pm.
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