JTA calls for screen time rules

President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association La Sonja Harrison addressing a meeting of the Rotary Club of Mandeville on Tuesday. (Photo: Kasey Williams) MANDEVILLE, Manchester — President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) La Sonja Harrison has suggested that Jamaica should adopt policies used in countries like Finland regarding screen time to restrict the use of phones and other mobile devices among young children during the school day. Pointing to her recent visit to the 89th biennial convention of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in Washington, DC, in July, Harrison said a national campaign is being launched to tackle screen time challenges among children. “They are now launching a national campaign, devices down, heads up, eyes on campaign, because they are saying we must get books back into our schools and for us to get our children re-engaged. I am not saying that we shouldn’t use the technology, but we have to restrict it at a certain level, our babies, our early childhood children and so I have a call for a national screen time policy,” Harrison said on Tuesday in Mandeville. She told her audience at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Mandeville that there should also be a two-fold project with a national reading campaign. “We have to establish one to say that the children must be cut off at a certain age and when they are older, when their bodies and mental capacity is in place, then we can introduce the use of the technology,” she said. “We need to help our children. I hear that we are in a digital [age]… it is causing a significant problem among our children. That is why in Finland they have made a national law to ban cellphones in schools. At the lower level they [children] don’t carry [phones]. At the higher level they can take it, but there is a ban at the entrance of the classroom for everybody to put their cellphones in there for the duration of the class,” she said. Harrison also hopes Jamaica can adopt Finland’s policy of having libraries in classrooms. “You know what is happening with our children… that as we want to silence them, we give them a tablet literally… The fix of the screen has become an addiction, because the algorithms that are on [the tablet] are based on advertising in order for you to be addicted,” she said. “There is a pre-programming that is taking place, so with the swiping we notice that the motor skills of our children are not being developed, you know how many children cannot tie their shoelaces? When we look at their hands, feet, and the coordination of our children, it is not working because they sit down in one place.” She cited daily observations of children’s awareness of their environment being poor when they are using devices such as tablets. “When I go to establishments I observe the children in restaurants and they are not looking good at the food that they are taking up. They are just glued to the screen. Their penmanship [is poor]. Everybody turn doctor now, you can’t make [out] anything, it is prescription writing,” she said, evoking laughter.