There was a period of time in this country where hand phones were freely brought to school.

But towards the end of 2009, a strict rule that stated hand phones are not in allowed in school was introduced. This by far, has disrupted the lives of students, the comfortability of parents and good communication with teachers. This so called law seems to be bringing more bad than good. Thus, I have a serious objection on this rule, and a critical acclaim that hand phones should be allowed in school. Mark my words, it must be allowed! Firstly, allowing hand phones in school will surely help a student in having better communication with parents in school. On many occasion, especially in the evenings when I would go home late from school, I find myself cursing the public phones in school. With so many vandals in school, finding a usable public phone to contact my parents is sometimes impossible. Phones not working, receiver not ringing and even coins that block the phone card slots! I wonder and really ponder, are there really serious idiots in school that cannot differentiate between a coin slot and a card slot? Thus, hand phones should be allowed in school. I always gave the voice of the schools senior administrator of students affair in my head saying that You dont have to worry if you are scheduled to come back early because you will be notified at least a day earlier. I have no doubts on this, and yes the school surely informs students earlier, so that parents can fetch them on time. But reality simply states that not every students travel home with their parents or relations! Many students actually travel back by public transportation, especially by bus. With the uncertainty of public transport, anything can happen. Take for example an incident that happened to me just last Friday. I boarded the bus, to be exact, a 4.30 p.m. bus that was scheduled to Arau, Perlis which was only about 5 kilometers from the bus station. But because of a breakdown of another bus, this bus of mine had to mix routes so that all the passengers would reach their destination. It went all the way to Kilang Gula, about 25 kilometers away from the bus station. But that wasnt the only bad luck I faced that day. On the way back home to Arau from Kilang Gula, the bus had a flat tyre at the left back. To get it fixed, it took up a total of more than two hours. I got home at around 7.30p.m. way delayed from schedule, with my parents worried sick about me. Why? Simply because I didnt have a hand phone to contact them. This brings to conclusion that a lot of things happen after school, rather than in school hours, so hand phones should be allowed. Next, allowing hand phones in school also improves communication of students and teachers. Many times have I experience, us as students getting scolded by teachers for coming in late for class, especially subjects that are not taught in a classroom such as Science. This all happens because of lack of miscommunication between students and teachers, especially when theres a slight change of venue of the subject. Also, allowing hand phones in schools also help students to communicate better with each other. Even many teachers agree with this! As of the bad hand phones can bring, due to the banning of hand phones, students actually break more rules when this law was created. You still can find a huge number of students bringing hand phones to school. Even with so many spot checks on hand phones being done, still students retaliate and bring them to school. Once a hand phone gets confiscated, you find that a student keeps a grudge on that teacher. Then it leads to many other wrong doings of that

student. For example, he punctures the teachers car; he bullies other students and becomes a vandal just to show his grudge against that teacher. Now you see how disallowing hand phones in school can be bad. Apart from that, I also dont see how we can improve the usage of ICT in school if hand phones are banned. We often hear the government talk about the usage of ICT in school. I still dont see how this crap is being fully put to use. I wonder if what they mean is by dummy slides and boring flash videos that are previewed to students in class. As a student in this modern era, that does not help a lot. When I think of the usage of ICT in school, I picture in my mind students using hand phones, tablet PCs, laptops and fast Wireless Fidelity (WiFI) connections to access info from the World Wide Web. Since hand phones are now considered as mobile computing, I dont see how it cannot enhance the usage of ICT in school. If you talk about students actually surfing illegal and prohibited sites, then whats the use of the government investing thousands of ringgit on the Websense project that blocks illegal sites? Whats the use of the Ministry of Education spending hundreds of thousands installing a WiFi network in every school if it cannot be fully utilized by every occupant of the school? It is really something to ponder about. As stated above in my serious objections, I strongly believe that hand phones should be allowed in school. Instead of bringing good to students, it is only bringing more complications. As of the usage of technology in school using hand phones, I dont see why hand phones cannot contribute. We are supposed to look into the future and step in line with technology. But by banning hand phones in school, we are actually putting our country one step backwards. Once again, I critically acclaim that hand phones should be allowed in school.