More than 65% of Scots schoolchildren disciplined for using a mobile phone in the classroom during the last three years are from Perth and Kinross or Fife, it has been revealed.
Figures released under freedom of information showed 1,457 of the 2,175 recorded incidents were in Courier Country.
However, the true figure is likely to be even higher as neither Dundee nor Angus records such incidents.
The news has prompted Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, to add her voice to a call for a ban on mobile phones in the classroom.
They would receive them back at break time and before going home.
Ms Smith said she had now written to both Perth and Kinross and Fife councils asking them to review their policies on mobile phone use.
“The fact that we have seen 298 cases in Perth and Kinross and over 1,100 cases in Fife of incidents of children being disciplined in relation to phone use is unacceptable and must be addressed,” she said.
“I have written to Perth and Kinross Council and Fife Council to ask them review the current guidelines and asked for the councils to investigate pupils being asked to give up their devices before going into class.”
An information request made by Ms Smith’s party revealed children have been punished on 2,175 occasions since 2010/11.
Twelve councils responded to the request, with Inverclyde recording no instances and Argyll and Bute and Shetland noting just one each.
Fife topped the board with 1,159 instances, while Renfrewshire was second with 338 and Perth and Kinross third with 298.
Although there were a handful of exclusions and suspensions across the country, the bulk of cases were dealt with by more moderate measures such as formal warnings of punishment exercises.
In one of the 38 cases recorded in the Western Isles, a pupil was disciplined for “using a mobile phone inappropriately to take a photograph of an incident between two pupils”.
It was revealed earlier this year that more than 100 pupils had their exam results scrapped after being caught cheating with a mobile phone.
However, Scottish Conservatives have stopped short of calling for an outright ban, adding that forcing children to surrender their phones would go some way to addressing cheating in the classroom and cyber bullying.