Politics Blog - April 29 - May 5

Minister of Education of New Zealand Erica Stanford told Newstalk ZB that the policy to ban phones at schools is turning out to be incredibly positive. 

"In some of the reports that we are getting from all the high schools are saying, we haven't had a single case of cyber-bullying since the ban was put in place. 

"I'm starting to think this would be one of the best things we have done," Stanford said. 

Stanford also added that they haven't had any problems with students using their smart watches and laptops instead of their phones during school hours.

"I haven't had any reports of people saying that kids are getting their laptops out and powering them up to check an email or social media. I mean, it's a bit of an inconvenience. So, I don't think it's that much of a problem. But we will keep an eye on it and see how that goes," she said. 

She also added that she's happy to be the "bad guy" by imposing this policy since it can improve mental health and academic outcomes for students. 

"There was a Norwegian study that just came out saying that this has got incredibly good outcomes for, especially, low socioeconomic girls for their mental health, but also GPA grades and bullying is reduced as well. 

"So I'm happy to be the bad guy."