National has this propensity of announcing policies that scratch conservative itches, cost nothing and hog media attention.
Yesterday we had a classic example of this as they announced that cell phones would be banned at schools.
From Adam Pearse at the Herald:
The National Party has vowed to ban students from using their phones at school if elected, but it will ultimately be up to schools themselves as to how such a policy is enforced.
It would bring New Zealand in line with Australian states which enforce such rules.
Luxon today announced National wanted to “turn around falling achievement” by eliminating “unnecessary disturbances and distractions”.
He would do so by banning the use of phones at schools for the entire day, including breaks between classes, with the expectation they would be “off and away all day”. It would apply to primary, intermediate and secondary schools.
“Schools will be able to decide exactly how they enforce it, but it could mean requiring students to hand in their phones before school, or leave them in their lockers or bags,” he said.
“Parents can contact students via the school office, and exceptions for students with health conditions or special circumstances will be permitted.”
Those special circumstances included students whose phones aided learning challenges and those who needed their phones for health purposes.
The party could be accused of plagiarism, because a very similar policy was recently implemented by the Labor Minns Government in New South Wales.
And you have to wonder about the utility of the policy given that schools already have the power to ban phones. As noted by Papatoetoe High School Principal Vaughan in this Newshub article:
Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault told AM on Wednesday cellphones are needed in some subjects for students to do work.
He told AM co-host Ryan Bridge centralised control from Government has proven not to work over recent years.
“On the surface of it, it sounds like a way to address an issue the world is facing in terms of screen time and distraction but when you dig down into the stuff at the bottom of the announcement, you see it’s no different to what’s actually already happening in schools and classrooms anyway,” he said.
“We don’t necessarily need centralised control and governance over this because schools are already enacting their own policies and putting their own systems and procedures in place to do pretty much exactly what’s already on the bottom of that page.”
As highlighted in this Education Gazette article schools adopt different approaches to the issue. Some schools such as Glendowie went cellphone free in 2020 during the school day.
Albany Senior School prefers to let its pupils self manage:
Albany Senior High School has chosen a different approach, preferring to encourage sensible use by students rather than banning devices.
“Basically, I believe we are supporting young adults to self-manage, so they should have their phones but also learn how to ensure they don’t become distractions,” says principal Claire Amos.
She clarifies that teachers always have the right to ask students to put them away or look after the phone for them if they can’t self-manage.
“Students have a lifetime of device ownership ahead. I think we need to be realistic that they can be learning tools and that young people can learn to manage them,” she says.
Rangitoto College let students contribute to the formation of the policy.
Rangitoto College took the views of its students into account when forming its policies around students’ cellphone use. The Auckland school used focus groups of students from Year 9 to 13 as part of its review process, as well as looking at effective school practices from both New Zealand and overseas.
“We wanted a policy that was flexible enough to allow students to have phones at school, but robust enough to minimise classroom distraction,” says Associate Principal Tony Giles. “We also engaged with current research which suggests that the mere presence of phones reduces cognitive capacity – even in bags or pockets, the proximity of the device has a negative impact, especially if it’s receiving notifications or alerts.”
The school’s resulting policy is designed to ensure that the learning of all students is maximised, while minimising any potential for distraction. If students choose to bring a cellphone, it must be switched to ‘silent’ and deposited in the ‘cellphone box’ at the start of each and every class. At the discretion of the teacher, students may be allowed to access their phones for learning-related activities, such as using the camera, stopwatch or calculator.
Tony says students, particularly juniors, adapted very quickly to the new routine of handing in their phone each lesson.
“Seniors took a little longer to adapt, but it’s now fully embedded across the school, to the extent it’s just another automatic routine for students. Teachers still however regularly remind students of the ‘why’, actively teaching students the benefits of self-regulation, although students understand all too well the addictive and manipulative nature of social media apps.”
You could be forgiven to wonder if Luxon himself should go cellphone free. After all in recent days he has had difficulties spelling “cat”.
And his comprehension is suspect. He has an inability to understand issues relating to development of the school curriculum even though it was recently explained to him.
From Emma Hatton at Newsroom:
… the meeting was close to wrapping up when a woman at the back of the room, concerned about her children, wanted to know why biology was being taken out of the school curriculum.
“I thought that was crazy eh?” Luxon interjected.
“Just for everyone in the room the new science curriculum doesn’t mention biology, physics or chemistry.”
“Oh so you’ve just confirmed it for me then,” the woman answered.
“Yea, the universities have to start teaching science from scratch from year one because it’s going to be useless,” Luxon answered.
Biology is not being removed for the New Zealand curriculum. Biology, chemistry, physics and earth science will all be included.
“This year we began developing a first draft of the refreshed science learning area. An early draft was shared for feedback. Concerns were raised and these concerns are being acted on for the next draft of the science learning area,” Ministry of Education curriculum centre leader Ellen MacGregor-Reid confirmed.
And Luxon knows this – last week in Selwyn he said the draft school science curriculum was not ready to go and that National had agreed to pause its development, if elected.
To top things off he also appears to have numeracy issues with his claim that New Zealand had dropped outside of the top ten in writing attracting this comment from Rugbyintel:
Treatment of this issue says a lot about National. Make a big song and dance about a policy that was plagiarized overseas. Misrepresent the current situation and use dodgy statistics. And instead of working with schools to deal with a matter that can be an issue propose one size fits all response which may work fine in wealthy areas but not so much in poorer areas.
And it has no comprehension how hypocritical its attacks on “nanny state” actions by the Government are. This is “nanny state” on steroids.
After all espousing good policy is not the goal. Scratching talkback radio itches for political gain is.
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