It’s been five months since the Government banned phones across schools in New Zealand.
Phones away for the day is a policy that kicked in from April 29 this year and its implementation has been managed by the Education Review Office (ERO).
It means all state schools and kura have to make sure students do not access or use phones while at school, including during break times and school trips outside the school grounds.
There are certain exceptions, like if a student needs a phone to help with their disability, monitor insulin levels or do a specific class assignment.
The National Party made an election promise to ban phones in schools because it said it would lift achievement and help students make the most out of their education.
Re: News asked three high school students and a mum how the phone ban is going for them.
Overall, the students said the phone ban was helping them concentrate in class and encouraged them to be more social but there were also a range of issues with it.
‘In the real world there isn’t a phone ban’
Emily is a Year 12 student at an all-girls public high school and thinks the phone ban feels like schools are holding students’ hands until they dump them in the deep end.
“In the real world, there isn’t a phone ban. Obviously when we get a job, when we go to university, we need to know how to time manage,” she said.
She said some students aren’t able to put their phones down during class so it’s easier to have a clear rule that bans phones.
At Emily’s school, she said students who are caught on their phones can get up to two warnings before their dean is called to confiscate their phone.
She said the only way a student can get their phone back is if their parent comes to the school after 4pm on certain weekdays to pick it up.
Emily said that while teachers at her school started off strictly enforcing the ban, they’ve loosened up as the year has gone on.
“Everyone has their phones out at lunchtime. If they don’t have their phone out, they’ve got their laptop open. They’re using Snapchat or Instagram because they have a VPN on their laptop, or they’re using personal data.”
She also felt the phone ban has created more admin for teachers in the middle of a teacher shortage.
92% of schools, kura had rules in place before phone ban – ERO
The Education Review Office’s chief review officer Nicholas Pole said the ERO spoke with 1975 schools and kura across New Zealand in Term 1 this year about how ready they were to implement the phone ban.
It found 92% already had student cell phone rules in place to meet the new requirements.
Other schools faced challenges with implementing the ban, Pole said.
“This included parents who did not support implementation of the new legislation and students who were unwilling to comply.”
Pole said increased device use reduces students’ ability to concentrate and may be one of the reasons for classroom behaviour getting worse, according to its recent report.
The agency said it has issued self-audit checklists to school boards to make sure they prevent students from using or accessing phones at school while making exceptions for special circumstances, like if a student needs their phone for health reasons.
“To date, we have come across only one school who was not compliant with the policy,” Pole said.
He said it will evaluate the impact of the phone ban after it’s been in place for at least 12 months.
‘Improvement’ in school work – student
Stella is a Year 13 student at an all-girls high school which chose to ban phones from the start of 2024, a term before the official ban started.
There’s a three-strike rule for being caught with your phone — once that’s up, you have to hand it into the student centre every day, she said.
Stella said most Year 9 students didn’t mind the ban because they didn’t know any different but senior students were quite shocked.
The phone ban has been “real good for during class time” and there’s “definitely improvement” in her school work, she said.
For her, the biggest downside is being unable to take photos and videos at school to capture memories.
Her peers tried bringing in digital cameras but those got taken off them too, she said.
Her school has a tradition where the Year 13 students get a special assembly at the end of the year where they play a compilation of videos and photos that students have taken since they were in Year 9, Stella said.
“So our year group would only have [photos from] Year 9 through 12 and no [Year] 13 because it was all gone. I think that’s mostly why most of our Year 13s were really mad.”
‘Overwhelmingly positive feedback’
Education Minister Erica Stanford said there has been “overwhelmingly positive feedback from teachers, principals, and parents” to the school phone ban.
“I’ve been told kids are much more focused on their learning, reading more books and spending more time playing outside,” Stanford said.
She said a UNESCO report last year has called for a global ban on smartphones in schools and the presence of mobile devices was found to distract students and negatively impact learning in 14 countries.
“Taking away the distraction of cell phones ensures better engagement in class and improves student achievement and wellbeing.”
Having an exemption to the phone ban
Charlie is a Year 12 student at a co-ed high school and has an exemption which allows him to access his phone at school because he has mental health issues.
He said he uses his phone to listen to music to self-regulate, contact his parents or psychologists, and record side-effects of the medications he takes.
Charlie said he wasn’t given a pass or anything physical to prove he has an exemption.
The only evidence he has is an email from the school approving his exemption request and an asterisk next to his name on the roll, which relief teachers don’t have access to, he said.
“[Relief] teachers will get mad at me when I’m on my phone checking something or doing something and it’ll basically single me out in front of the whole class and I’ll have to say, ‘Oh, I have an exemption’… It just feels like I’m airing something private to the class,” he said.
“I had a reliever once that refused to believe that I had an exemption despite me showing him the email confirming it. And he spent probably, like, 10 minutes just insisting ‘I don’t believe you’… It was just overall a waste of time.”
Phone ban is ‘ridiculous’ – mum
Kirsty is a mum-of-two living in Auckland and said her children haven’t been affected at all by the ban.
Her 12-year-old and 14-year-old have had hand-me-down phones since 2020 and she said her older child often texts her while at school for all sorts of reasons.
“Sometimes it’s asking for a ride home because it’s going to rain, sometimes it’s because ‘this teacher said this’, sometimes it’s because ‘I have a headache’,” Kirsty said.
She said her daughter’s high school is inconsistent with enforcing the ban, where some teachers will confiscate your phone if they see it out but others don’t care.
“I think it’s ridiculous… Abstinence, for anything, it just doesn’t work,” she said.
“There’s always ways around it. Teenagers are wicked smart.”
Instead of an outright ban, Kirsty said schools should be teaching students how to moderate their phone usage, prevent cyber bullying, and increase social interaction.
“I think there are incredibly low expectations of our children. We can’t trust them to manage their cell phones themselves so we take them away.”
*Last names have been kept private to prevent students from being identified.
