A Hamilton school has became the first secondary school in New Zealand to ban smartphones for junior students, and is set to lead the way as other plans to follow suit.
St Paul’s Collegiate School introduced a smartphone ban for Years 9 and 10 at the start of the school year, and since then other New Zealand schools have been seeking advice from them on how they can make a similar move, a spokesperson for the school told 1 NEWS today.
Parents have welcomed the new change, which also includes senior students placing their phones in boxes at the front of the classroom.
St Paul's headmaster Grant Lander told Stuff last week, New Zealand schools were grappling with the challenges of having mobile phones in classrooms and favours the Education Ministry taking a lead in addressing the issue.
"Wouldn't it be amazing if, instead of each school fighting their battle, the Ministry of Education or the Government - like the French Government - were actually prepared to make a ruling for everyone?" Mr Lander says.
"Every school is trying to reinvent the wheel and work out what they can do, and work out what level of support they have in their community. I can definitely see a scenario in maybe five or six years time, maybe a lot of schools won't have smartphones anywhere on their school premises because of the issues."
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