2023-12-01 03:51:37
– New Zealand to ban smartphones in schools
New Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wants to ban phones in schools within his first 100 days in office to improve student concentration.
Published today at 04:51 Updated 1 hour ago
Christopher Luxon on November 27, 2023 in Wellington.
AFP
New Zealand’s conservative Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced Friday a ban on cell phones in the country’s schools, a move intended to tackle falling literacy rates.
New Zealand schools were among the best in the world for literacy a few years ago, but young people’s reading and writing skills have declined, to the point where some researchers are calling a literacy “crisis”. education.
“We are going to ban phones in schools across New Zealand. We want our children to learn and we want our teachers to teach,” declared the Prime Minister who took office this week.
Christopher Luxon has made clear he will ban phones in schools during his first 100 days in office, adopting a policy already tested in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. This measure aims to put an end to disruptive behavior and promote student concentration, he noted.
Researchers from New Zealand’s Education Hub warned of a “literacy crisis” last year, finding more than a third of 15-year-olds might barely read or write.
Counting down Jacinda Ardern
The conservative government of Christopher Luxon sparked controversy in its first week in power by renouncing a broad ban on tobacco, a pioneering measure in the world which had been adopted by the previous government. Former Labor Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pushed through Parliament last year for a “generational smoking ban” banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone born following 2008.
Christopher Luxon justified the repeal of these laws before they came into force, by the fear of seeing the development of a vast black market in tobacco. But it has attracted widespread criticism from doctors and public health promotion associations.
Christopher Luxon also authorized a restart of offshore oil and gas exploration, abandoning one of Jacinda Ardern’s signature climate change policies.
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