Mobile phones will be banned in schools across New Zealand, conservative Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Friday, as his fledgling government looks to turn around the country’s plummeting literacy rates.
Luxon declared the ban would be in place within his first 100 days in office. The decision comes amid levels of reading and writing in the country declining to the point that some researchers feared there was a classroom “crisis”.
AFP reported that Education Hub, a charity organisation, warned of a literacy crisis last year, finding more than one-third of 15-year-olds in New Zealand could barely read or write. “That something must be done to address the distressingly low literacy rates in Aotearoa New Zealand is clear,” it said.
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Luxon’s conservative government, sworn in on Monday, has been mired in controversy during its first week in power.
Luxon has also agreed to restart offshore oil and gas exploration, junking one of former premier Jacinda Ardern’s signature climate change policies.
