Erica Stanford: Education Minister on the Government looking into banning smartwatches and social media in class

The Education Minister's not ruling out banning other digital distractions in schools.

An Education Review Office report shows three-quarters of secondary school teachers believe student behaviour's improved since cellphones were outlawed in class.

It's also recommending considering also excluding smart watches and social media.

Education Minister Erica Stanford says she's open to the ideas.

"We're certainly going to take ERO's recommendations into account and I'll get the Ministry to give me some advice, but I certainly think we probably do need to go further. But that'll obviously be a decision I need to take to Cabinet." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Surprise, surprise, the cell phone ban in our school is
a success, and Education Review Office report shows the ban
has improved academic achievement and reduced bullying, and the er
now wants the government to go further and ban even
more devices. Erica Stanford is the Education Minister High Erica, Hello,
hi you, I'm well, thank you. Would you consider banning
the wearables like the smart watchers.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
We're certainly going to take Erro's recommendations into account and
I'll get the ministry. It could be some advice, but
I certainly think we probably do need to go further.
But that'll obviously be a decision I need to take to Cabinet,
but I'll certainly look at it now.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
One of the other things they also want you to
limit is access to social media, because of course the
kids are still able to get through it through the laptops.
Can you actually practically do that?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
There is a way that we can. It's not a
complete solution, but the Network for Learning that part of
their a Crown agency who provide internet to schools, can
restrict and limit what you can see on the schools
network and they are able to disable access to social media.
Now I think about sixty percent of schools already do

(01:04):
it voluntarily. There's about forty percent who don't. And I'm
just working with n for our on whether or not
we can go further with a band from the school
network of social media. There's a few fishalts in there.
I've got to look at though, like what well, like
the fact you've got things like YouTube and how would
we deal with that, And the fact that actually for
the moment, teachers are on the network, and teachers may
be accessing Facebook during the day, and so that would

(01:26):
mean they would have lost access. So there's a few
little things I just have to think about.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Okay, Now, the ERO says the problem with the phones
the ban is still in some cases the parents are
the problem because they are resisting the ban. Is that
what you're finding.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, I was a little bit surprised to hear that,
But then when I think about my own behavior, sometimes
not so, you know, occasionally I will text Alex or
Holly at school and say and how did your results go?
And then I've got to stop doing that. And actually, parents,
we all as a collective need to stop distracting kids
during the day. And even I looked at that and

(02:02):
thought you know what, even I do that occasionally, and
I need to stop doing it, and I think all
parents need to probably take that on board.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Okay, listen, I see you've also got a bill that's
going to stop schools opting out of international maths and
reading tests. What's going on here.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's really important that we have data over time, that
consistent data over time that shows our performance. We really
have nothing else. PISA, which is the one we do
at age fifteen that does the basics, and we've got
Pearls and Terms which to reading, writing, and maths and
science at a younger age, are the only longitudinal studies

(02:36):
we have to show our own performance over time. Yes,
it does rank us with other countries. I'm less concerned
about rankings. I'm more concerned about our own performance over time.
If you look at PISA at age fifteen, our students
today are about a year between a year and a
half and two years behind where they were in two
thousand and three when this started. So it's really important
that schools partake in the assessments. A lot of them

(02:59):
are fusing it, which means it falls on the same
schools year after year, which means the data is not
as valid lately as it should be, and so just
saying to schools, hey, when you're asked, you need to
partake in it. It's really important for the health of
the system. So I know where to put resource and
we know how to make good policy decisions.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Erica, Thanks very much, as always, eric a stand for
the education ministry. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
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