Representational Image | Photo: Jayesh P/ Mathrubhumi
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has asked the state education department to end the ‘humiliating’ body checks of students for mobile phones.
It has asked the department to let the students bring mobile phones with the permission of their parents if it was necessary for them. The phones can be kept switched off until the end of school hours, it added.
The comments were made while issuing an order in a complaint filed by Vadakara native Shaji P seeking return of the mobile phone confiscated by teachers of his son. The commission asked the school to return the phone in three days.
A blanket ban on the use of mobile phones in schools is not useful. Children should be digitally literate. The world is not going to end if children use mobiles in schools, commission members B Babitha and Reny Antony opined.
A general education department decision from 2010 stated that if teachers or students brought mobile phones to school, they could be confiscated and auctioned. The money can be deposited in the school's PTA fund.