Videos give the wrong impression

THE EDITOR: The contentious debate on whether or not camera phones should be allowed in schools continues to rage with the former and current Ministers of Education having opposing views (surprise, surprise). As per usual, the former minister disagrees with the current minister’s call for principals to enforce the ban on cell phones in schools for a number of reasons.

I commend the Minister of Education for being so vocal and being one of the most hard-working ministers to date, always keeping the public abreast and never shying away from the tough issues.

What Minister Anthony Garcia is proposing supports a greater good. While we may argue that camera phones enable people to be held accountable, we also have the major issue of sensationalism. We see how with each new video it seems more and more like the ministry is not in control when in reality these incidents are taking place in less than 20 of the more than 500 schools in the country.

With the controversy surrounding a two-second video of what people initially assumed was some kind of assault but was later revealed to be inappropriate horseplay, we see how these videos can do more harm than good. Instead of the focus being on the inappropriateness of the prank being played, some people made an incorrect assumption and spread rumours about the school and students involved.

We need to understand here that while we may not agree with everything proposed by a government minister, we must be objective in our thinking.

If we continue to focus on these videos on social media, won’t students now feel compelled to do things to be featured and to get attention? We must be very careful that in trying to include technology and be advanced in our schools that we forget to think critically or, at the least, forget common sense.

LANA SINGH, Preysal

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"Videos give the wrong impression"

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