T

he Kediri Education Office has launched raids across schools in the East Java town to crack down on students bringing cell phones to class.

Education officials and teachers at 192 schools have also begun searching students' bags, motorcycle saddlebags and other items for cell phones.

The crackdown was conducted after the Kediri municipal administration issued a regulation prevent all elementary to senior high school students from bringing cell phones to school. Heri Siswanto, head of the education office's public junior education unit, said his office had issued the decree last Friday.

"We've seized dozens of students' cell phones," he said Monday.

"We found many of them hidden in students' motorbike saddlebags, even though we informed them previously about the regulation."

He added all the relevant institutions would continue holding such raids until all schools in the city were free from cell phones.

"The regulation only applies to students, while teachers are allowed to bring cell phones," Heri said.

"However, they are only allowed to use their cell phones in the teacher's room. If they use the cell phone in class or in the school yard, they will be punished."

He added teachers in breach of the rule would face disciplinary measures from their superiors.

Heri also said each school had the right to decide what kind of punishment to mete out to students found bringing cell phones to school.

Kediri Mayor Samsul Ashar said he supported the decision, pointing out that many students were misusing cell phones, such as by taking pornographic pictures.

"Even though students can access pornographic films from the Internet, the regulation can at least reduce the negative impact of the technology," he said.

Samsul also said he hoped the cell phone ban would help raise students' academic achievements, as both students and teachers would not use their cell phones during the teaching and learning process.

However, IT expert Daniel Rosyid criticized the cell phone ban as "childish".

Those with the responsibility of guiding children's education did not want to take the responsibility, he said.

"It's better if students are given courses about technology and its uses," he said. "They can then be encouraged to use the technology for something useful, like to accessing the Internet to report news."

Daniel added the local administration also needed to hold technology courses for teachers, as most educators in the province were not yet familiar with such technology.

Dwi Rajab, the principal of state senior high school SMAN 1, said he would still allow students to bring in cell phones, as long as they refrained from using them in class or to access or download pornographic pictures.

"We can't deny the development of the technology," he said.

"Previously we encouraged our students to bring laptop computers to school, so it'd be strange to all of a sudden forbid them to use even cell phones."

Dwi added many of his students lived far from the school, so they needed cell phones to communicate with their parents.