Updated 03.21 | Published 03.16
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Mobile phones will be banned in New Zealand schools, according to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon who leads the country’s new Conservative government.
The aim is to stop declining reading and writing skills.
– We want our children to learn something at school and our teachers to be able to teach, said Luxon during a school visit in Auckland, the country’s largest city.
The schools in New Zealand used to be able to measure up to the better countries in the world in terms of skills in reading and writing. But the results have fallen and the new government is now trying to fix that by making a reality of the election promise to ban mobile phones in schools.
Luxon believes it will help students concentrate more on school work and stop disruptive behavior.
Researchers from the non-profit organization Education Hub warned in a report last year that a third of 15-year-olds could barely read or write.
Luxon leads a government that began its work less than a week ago. But it has already taken some rewritten decisions.
The other day, Luxon made it clear that tough tobacco laws introduced by the previous government must be removed. And the search for oil and gas deposits must be allowed again.