A Parliamentary panel today recommended a ban on carrying of mobile phones by students to schools and by teachers to classrooms and expressed concern over "low level of awareness" about basic cellphone manners.
"The state governments may be advised to issue appropriate instructions to schools," the Committee on Petitions of the Rajya Sabha said in its report.
It said school authorities may be directed to provide landline telephones from where teachers and students can make emergency calls on payment basis.
"There could be a centrally located landline phone in which important calls for teachers and students could be received and transmitted to them," the Committee headed by M Venkaiah Naidu (BJP) said.
Noting that motorists using mobile phone while driving "unfortunately have not been deterred" by the Motor Vehicles Act, the panel suggested that for the first three offences there would be monetary penalty, while subsequent two offences would invite fine along with negative entry in the driving license.
For the sixth offence, the license should be suspended for a specified period not exceeding six months so that the provision could have salutary effect on offenders, it said.