‘Sensible’ or ‘virtue-signalling’? NZ educators on digital device crackdown in schools

Friday, 19 June 2026

The Victorian government in Australia is limiting the use of digital devices in schools, but there are no plans to follow suit in New Zealand.

Educators are split over the idea of cracking down on the use of digital devices in schools – a move made in Australia this week.

From term one next year secondary schools in Victoria will be asked to include “planned device-free time” in their learning in a bid to reverse declining engagement, the state government’s education minister Ben Carroll said.

Carroll said device-free time could “look like using whiteboards or paper, group debates, practical experiments or performances instead”, Carroll said.

For Ben Carroll, education minister and deputy premier of the Victorian government in Australia, “less time on devices means more time learning”.

It follows another policy which set limits on device use for younger students, with “minimal use” for those up to year 2 and no more than 90 minutes a day for years 3 to 6, to be implemented from 2027.

Under the policy, primary schools will be banned from asking families to supply a digital device for use at school.

The decision in Victoria comes amid a global movement by some governments to limit screen time in schools in response to possible negative consequences on health, wellbeing and learning.

As part of a back-to-basics education policy, the Swedish Government this year allocated more than 2.1 billion krona (NZ$382.2 million) for textbooks and a new curriculum to enforce textbook-based learning is in development.

But changes similar to the one in Victoria are not on the horizon here, said Jennifer Fraser, the Ministry of Education’s general manager of schools policy.

Education Minister Erica Stanford’s office said she has not asked for advice on the issue.

Fraser said schools are self-governing, and it is up to individual boards and school leaders to ensure device use is “safe, purposeful and balanced with other forms of learning” to fulfil Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 requirements.

Education Minister Erica Stanford has not sought advice from her ministry on policies to limit screen time in schools.

Ministry guidance recommends “younger children have limited screen time, and older students should avoid long periods of continuous use”.

School boards should have “up-to-date policies and practices to manage health and safety risks around the use of digital devices”, the ministry’s website says, which could include “managing student screen time in learning programmes”.

The Paediatric Society of New Zealand recommends children up to the age of 6 have minimal screen time, in sessions of 10-15 minutes; students up to 12 spend no more than a third of the school day on a digital device, in 20-minute sessions; and students over 12 have eye breaks every 20 minutes.

Post Primary Teachers Association president Chris Abercrombie says clearer guidance on screen time in schools would be helpful.

Chris Abercrombie, president of the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) union,said teachers would support a similar policy to the one just announced in Victoria.

“We know New Zealand young people have some of the highest screen time in the world and we know it’s detrimental, and so some really clear guidance on that … so schools have the support to make those decisions would be really appreciated.”

Given the high use of digital devices in secondary schools, the policy would be challenging to implement, but Abercrombie said he would welcome clearer guidelines.

Cashmere High School principal John Stradwick believes limits on digital device use is “sensible” for younger secondary school students.

John Stradwick, principal of Cashmere High School in Christchurch, said a limit on device use was “sensible” for younger high school students, given emerging evidence and concerns that “excessive or poorly managed device use can affect concentration, memory, writing stamina and overall learning achievement”.

Stradwick said some students arrived at high school with a high reliance on devices, and needed help to “transition into more purposeful and balanced use”.

“This is even more important with unfettered access to online material and the rise of AI, where there is a real risk of students cognitively offloading too much of their thinking.”

Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos does not support arbitrary time limits for use of devices in schools.

He said any rule about device use would need to cater for students with specific learning needs, including accessibility.

Claire Amos, principal of Albany Senior High School in Auckland and member of education leadership organisation Aotearoa Education Collective, said the policy appeared to be a knee-jerk reaction.

“For me, it speaks to virtue-signalling rather than thoughtfully designed education policy.”

Amos, who was involved in the roll-out of the bring-your-own-device schools policy and has worked as an information and communications technology trainer, said schools needed to approach the use of devices critically, but imposing arbitrary time-based restrictions was not the right way to go about it.

For senior high school students, technology was “far too woven into a lot of the contexts and subjects” to institute a blanket device-free time, she said.