New Zealand's phone-addicted children would have to do without their devices at school under a National Government, party leader Christopher Luxon says.
Luxon, who's making his maiden bid for the Prime Ministership, vowed on Wednesday to impose the blanket ban if National won the election in October.
The promise prompted questions from AM host Ryan Bridge on whether Parliament should enforce a similar ban on cell phones in the debating chamber, so politicians can set an example to schools.
"I haven't thought about that," Luxon said. "I think [with] adults, there should be a lot of personal responsibility for that."
However, National MPs have cell phone bans imposed on them during party caucus meetings, Luxon revealed. "It's just good practice, I want everyone focused on what we're doing… I don't want people distracted," he said.
On the school ban, Luxon believed it would lift educational achievement.
It comes as New Zealand's OECD rankings in maths, science and reading are falling - with Luxon claiming it threatens the country's future prosperity.
He told AM overseas examples showed the ban worked.
"As you've seen in countries all around the world - you've seen all the Australian states do it just recently as well - is that the evidence is really clear," Luxon said. "Phones are a real distraction and a disturbance in the classroom and when they've been banned, actually, there's a big improvement in student achievement and outcomes.
"The research internationally… is really strong and particularly for low-achieving learners, there's a really big step-up and improvement without the distraction and disturbance of the phone going off all the time."
One teacher deriding National's plan was Secondary Principals' Association president Vaughan Couillault, of Auckland's Papatoetoe High School, who told AM cellphones were needed in some subjects for students to do the work.
"We don't necessarily need centralised control and governance over this because schools are already enacting their own policies and procedures in place," Couillault said.
But New Zealand was in a "dire state" when it came to student learning and action was needed, Luxon said.
Couillault said cell phones weren't "a big topic of conversation" at his school, given his teachers set up their own routines for when they can and can't be used.
In a statement to Newshub, Labour Education spokesperson Jan Tinetti - the incumbent minister - said introducing a Government-ordered national ban was unnecessary and showed a lack of understanding of how schools operated in New Zealand.
Introducing a ban of this kind would undermine schools that were best placed to make such a decision, she said.
