WELLINGTON (AFP) – Mobile phones will be banned in New Zealand schools, Conservative Prime Minister Christopher Lacson announced on Friday as his new government seeks to stem declining literacy rates.
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Lacson announced that he would adopt the measure within his first 100 days in office. This is a policy that has been used in the United States, United Kingdom and France with mixed results.
The Prime Minister said the ban on cell phones would help students focus on classes.
“We're going to ban phones in schools across New Zealand. We want our kids to learn and our teachers to teach,” he said.
New Zealand schools once had among the best literacy levels in the world, but rates have fallen to the point where some experts fear a “crisis” in classrooms.
Researchers at the Education Hub warned of a “literacy crisis” by 2022, after determining that a third of 15-year-olds could barely read or write.
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