National leader Christopher Luxon is not ruling out banning mobile phones in schools.
He teased the policy during a school visit in Hamilton, where he also stumbled on one very simple spelling question: how do you spell cat?
Teaching the basics brilliantly is one of National's education policies.
But put into practice, Luxon may need to brush up on his own basics.
While Luxon corrected one student at a Hamilton school that the word 'car' is spelt "C-A-R" not "C-A-T", a child then spelt 'can' as "K-A-N" and Luxon repeated it back.
"K-A-N, very good."
'Can' is spelt with a C.
One child spelled out "K-A-T" next.
Luxon then asked, "what is K-A-T?"
The children responded: "Cat."
Luxon said: "Cat, I am just checking, I am just checking."
One from three - cat-astrophic.
Luxon's classroom goal is simple: Reading, writing, maths, an hour a day on each.
He also asked the school's principal about mobile phones and whether it had a ban on them.
Two weeks ago, the United Nations called for a global ban on smartphones in schools, and Luxon seems to quite like that.
"We are very focused on making sure that we lift academic achievement in New Zealand," he said.
"When I talk to principals, but also to parents, they do say mobile phones are a distraction so we may have more to say about that very shortly. Watch this space."
Across the ditch, New South Wales has already banned phones in primary schools and will ban them in secondary schools from Term 4 this year.
"Watch this space," said Luxon.
"We will have something to say about it very shortly. But I have real sympathy for parents and principals who are saying it is difficult in schools, whether it is primary, intermediate or secondary, it's a distraction for kids and it's stopping them from learning."
There's no commitment as yet, but it could form part of his education picture.
Jenna Lynch Analysis
Is it likely that National could ban phones in schools?
It sounds like Luxon well and truly let the misspelled cat out of the bag there.
I'm hearing it could be announced as soon as Wednesday.
The official line from the party is they're not confirming anything.
But an outright ban is good retail politics on the parent side of things as parents think it's a major problem.
There is a multitude of studies showing these things are a distraction, exacerbated by the multitude of things you can do them.
Schools at the moment are choosing school by school what to do about it and the Government is leaving them to it
Newshub's received a strongly-worded statement from the Education Minister on this.
Jan Tinetti said that introducing a Government-ordered national ban is unnecessary, and shows a lack of understanding of how schools operate in New Zealand.
She said introducing a ban of this kind would undermine schools who are best placed to make this decision, as it needs to be made on a case-by-case basis to take into account learners who may need phones for accessibility reasons.
That's a solid fail grade from the minister on this.
