Pitched as removing the biggest everyday distraction from classrooms so students can focus, learn, and talk to each other again — a back-to-basics move National promised during the 2023 election campaign and delivered on schedule.

The Policy: National Cell Phone Ban in Schools — September 2023 →

From term two 2024, every state school and kura in New Zealand was required to ban students from using or accessing their phones across the entire school day — including breaks and lunchtime, not just class time. Schools were given flexibility on method (phones in bags, lockers, pouches, or at the office) but the policy itself was mandated system-wide.

What it does:

• Full day coverage: students cannot use phones during class, breaks, or lunchtime — unlike school-set policies that sometimes allowed phones at breaks
• Nationwide reach: applies to all state schools and kura from 29 April 2024, covering virtually every student in public education
• Exemptions allowed: health needs, learning support requirements and special circumstances give schools room to adapt to individual students
• School autonomy on method: how phones are stored is each school's call; the government mandates the outcome, not the logistics

Where things stand:

In November 2025 the Education Review Office (ERO) published its formal review — Do Not Disturb — surveying nearly 2,000 teachers and principals and 3,691 students. The headline findings were broadly positive: 79% of teachers said students were better able to concentrate, 61% reported improved academic achievement, 77% saw better behaviour, and 69% noted a reduction in bullying. Education Minister Erica Stanford cited the results as evidence the policy was "delivering better student outcomes" and noted improvements were especially pronounced for Pacific students across behaviour, attendance, focus, and mental health. A separate academic study published in September 2025 found "strong causal evidence" that classroom phone bans lift grades, lending independent weight to the teacher reports.

Compliance is patchy — particularly in secondary schools. The ERO found nearly half of secondary students admitted to using phones in class at least sometimes, and more than a third used them during breaks out of teachers' sight. Parents were identified as a significant factor: students were twice as likely to break the rules where their parents opposed the policy, often texting or calling during school hours. Year 12–13 students were the least consistent, with around a third of seniors not reliably following the ban. One quirk from early in the rollout: students at an Auckland school reportedly switched to walkie-talkies to get around the restriction. Before the ban launched, principal associations had warned that a blanket rule would be unworkable and that schools should set their own policies — those concerns have softened as the one-and-a-half-year track record has accumulated, though enforcement inconsistency remains real.

What to watch:

• Smartwatch and wearables: the ERO formally recommended expanding restrictions to connected watches and similar devices — a government decision on this is pending
• Senior-school compliance: Year 12–13 follow-through is the weakest link; whether stronger enforcement or graduated rules apply to senior students will test the policy's durability
• Long-run academic data: teacher self-reports are encouraging, but independent NCEA data across multiple years will provide the clearest evidence of whether the ban is genuinely lifting achievement