Podcasts Other The Mike Hosking Breakfast Mike's Minute: Today's school phone ban is a step in the right direction

Mike's Minute: Today's school phone ban is a step in the right direction

Published: Aug. 8, 2023, 9:51 p.m.

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I will tell you what I like about today\'s phone ban deal in schools from National. \\xa0

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It represents a return to discipline that has been so sadly lacking these past few years.

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New Zealand is too loose around the edges these days, we have a touch of the feral about us, and it is tragically exemplified daily in our schools.

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Our performance has plummeted in documented testing in areas like maths, reading, spelling and science.

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Our absenteeism rate is atrocious.

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The kids leaving school with less than NCEA Level 2 is a crime, which makes the kids leaving school with no qualifications at all even worse.

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Banning phones as National will do in Government is not a magic bullet, but it is a representation that things need to sharpen up.

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We need to get our act together. I assume the reason they are making the call is to save individual schools the hassle.

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That\'s the other problem with too many of us these days; we lack spine, we lack conviction, we are too happy to roll over.

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Too many principals would love to ban phones but don\'t want to deal with the grief from whining parents and students.

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So, the Government will do it for them. Ironically, the current Government, the one that lives to tell you how to run your life, says its not for them to decide. I watched the same people last week kill National\'s paid parental leave amendment, because you should not be allowed the flexibility to run your own life.

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Yet, they want to control your kids access to Mum and Dad, but not your kid\'s school performance. How ironic is that?

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By the way, the banning of phones isn\'t new. In fact, we are a mile behind many parts of the world, including Australia, who worked out ages ago that the scourge of the screen is holding kids back.

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In general when the announcement was made you had the one camp saying thank God and the screaming about their rights, an emergency etc.

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But, once implemented, it is seen as the right thing to do and they are glad someone made the call.\\xa0

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There is much to do to repair the damage to our kids learning. But small steps work.

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And one of them is being taken today and not a moment too soon.

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