Vaping restrictions, mandated teaching methods for reading, writing and maths and phone bans. Fancy political footwork or strategic and necessary moves to address big problems asks Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.
Political footballs in play
The phrase “political football” has been bouncing about this week. It was used by an oncologist in relation to the National party’s cancer treatment policy announcement. Politicians were urged not to treat Māori as one at koroneihana over the weekend. By definition, a political football is “a problem that politicians from different parties argue about and try to use in order to get an advantage for themselves.” Generally speaking, the problem or issues might otherwise be defined as “non-partisan” or specific to a group with real concerns who end up caught in a crossfire of reactionary or short-term solutions. Political footballs aren’t atypical in an election year but it does feel as if we’ve been diagnosed as short on patience by politicians this year. More holistic or slow-grind solutions to big systemic or societal issues have been tossed overboard in favour of policies that might be viewed as addressing the symptoms, and not the disease.
Phone bans and financial literacy in schools
In the last month, we’ve had a slew of policies some have described as reactionary, related to the not-insignificant concerns about young people in New Zealand. National’s proposed phone ban for schools is a solid example. Very legitimate concerns exist about the way young people’s brains are being changed by large amounts of screen time and phone bans are becoming increasingly common around the world. Plenty of research also exists countering their efficacy in a world where you might say the horse has already bolted. A ban provides a fast solution while digging into the vast complexities of ubiquitous technology use is a slow burn. Labour’s plan to introduce financial literacy teaching in schools was broadly welcomed but also accused of being a knee-jerk policy. It prompted fears from principals about curriculum overload and based on evidence, the jury is out on how effective financial literacy education actually is.
Measures to address youth vaping around the world haven’t done much to decrease rates
This morning on The Spinoff, Shanti Mathias has taken a look at how other countries are handling youth vaping following Labour’s announcement of further measures to tackle youth vaping yesterday. Pointedly, she’s found that the range of measures being taken across the globe hasn’t done much to decrease rates of youth vaping. Parents are frustrated that a crackdown on retailers is months away, while Action for Smokefree 2025 spokesperson Ben Youdan has described some of the suggested measures as “random” and “blunt”, saying enforcement of the current rules would achieve more. “The danger is we throw broad-brush approaches at that problem rather than looking at, how do we treat those who have some dependence on vaping?”, he said.
Concerns teaching becoming ‘a political football’
This week Labour has also announced that if it wins the election, teachers will be required by law to use government-approved approaches for teaching reading, writing and maths. That follows National’s curriculum policy announcement, focused on “teaching the basics brilliantly” in March. Yesterday, an education researcher said teaching was becoming a political football as the election looms. Dr Nina Hood is the founder of the Education Hub. Speaking to Nine to Noon yesterday, Hood said it says it seems like there are a lot of announcements coming out about education at the moment, and she worries that they’re not always as thought through as they need to be.