When play becomes a problem:

The quiet cost of mobile gaming in our classrooms

- By MHEL CEDRIC D. BENDO

Walk into any public high school in the Philippines, and the signs are there, even if they are easy to miss. A student struggling to stay awake in the back of the room. Another trying to finish homework during recess.

A phone surreptitiously hidden beneath a desk, glowing for just long enough for “one more game.” What appears to be harmless fun has started to influence a larger issue—a problem quietly manifesting in classrooms.

Mobile gaming has become an integral part of youth culture. It is convenient, cheap, and completely engrossing. For many students, it provides a temporary reprieve from the demands of education, tedium, or problems at home.

The trouble begins when game-play extends well into the night and sleep is forfeited in the process. Research conducted among high school students in the Philippines verifies

The challenge for us is simple but urgent: to ensure games remain a break in learning—not a barrier to it.

what most teachers and parents have long known: mobile gaming has become an unseen risk in the classroom.

This is not a trend that can be easily dismissed. The more time spent gaming, the worse the academic performance. This is in no way a result of a lack of intelligence or initiative on the part of the students.