Erica Stanford: National Education Spokesperson on proposed screen rules for Early Childhood Education Centres
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What screen‑time restrictions is the National Party proposing for early childhood centres?
The Great Screen Crackdown continues this election campaign. The Nat's looking to ban device use in early childhood centres, title limits on years one through three, also wants new school start checks. That's your toilet training, your dressing independently, holding a pencil, all that sort of stuff. Erica Stanford is the national spokesperson on education, of course, and is back with us. Good morning. Good morning, Mike. How much actual screen time is there in ECEs?
Why does Erica Stanford say screen use under five isn’t best practice?
I look I I said in my speech yesterday, not a lot. We just want to be consistent across the country in all of the different E C E settings, whether that's home based, kindergarten, you know, private um or or charitable setups. We we want to make sure that there is a a clear understanding of parents as well that screen time in under fives um you know is not best practice. This is actually more about primary uh primary school, especially lower primary, uh setting clear restrictions on on device use because we know that handwriting and using paper and having interactions are so much more important. And that is where all of the evidence is showing we need to set our kids up for success.
How does the party plan to limit device use in Years 1‑3 and promote handwriting?
Yeah, that yeah, one to three things. The adjustment is how big? I mean, is this has this been brought to your attention by you by genuine concern or is there just is this just more uh this just part of the bigger education picture of reform?
It's a bit of both. Um, there has been people who brought it to me uh as a as a concern, especially parents. who are seeing more and more device use in primary and especially lower primary at the expense of things like handwriting and those interactions. uh which are so important. And all of the international evidence is pointing in that direction as we increase EduTech The the the international evidence is that going in the opposite way. And you see Australia now, Sweden, Norway, other countries around the world all removing those devices out of classrooms and going back to analog handwriting because we know that that's so much better for brain development.
The school start check thing, if you find it's an issue, what are you gonna do about it?
There's a couple of things in this. Firstly, there are a genuine reasons why children may be struggling and we've just put three quarters of a billion dollars in our learning support budget into uh especially those early years, ECE and year one. to help uh pick up some of those issues and get children seen by specialists earlier.
What is the new “School Start Check” and how will it help children who struggle early?
And that's risen by thirty percent this year, which is good to see. But then there is also the other part, which is just this general understanding and expectation that we need to have an ECE. And with parents in the school sector, what are the key foundational skills that children need to be able to transition successfully? Good oral language, um, being able to open their lunchbox, be able to hold a conversation, being able to toilet themselves, which is becoming more and more of an issue. You talk to any primary school, they'll tell you more children are turning up for nappies who do not have additional learning needs. Uh so that ECEs are working towards those and that parents at home are supporting them in those goals to make sure that we're getting kids at school ready to learn.
Just while I've got you generally speaking, Jinny Anderson uh and her let's hold up NCEA thing with a special board at appointment, she says there's a lot of pushback, there's a lot of frustration, a lot of anger. Is that true? Is there i if I go and round up a hundred educators, do I get pushback on what you're trying to do or not?
I don't think that you do. I mean the course the unions don't like it, they don't like anything that I do, so that's just part of the course. But Uh essentially m we have been through a huge process with a variety of principals who've been advising to get this right.
Is there pushback from teachers and unions on the screen‑free policy?
They are on board. We've already produced the new curriculum. We are heading in this direction. And most people understand that NCA was so broken it cannot be fixed.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What screen‑time restrictions is the National Party proposing for early childhood centres?
0:00–0:21
2
Why does Erica Stanford say screen use under five isn’t best practice?
0:21–0:59
3
How does the party plan to limit device use in Years 1‑3 and promote handwriting?
0:59–2:11
4
What is the new “School Start Check” and how will it help children who struggle early?
2:11–3:24
5
Is there pushback from teachers and unions on the screen‑free policy?
3:24–4:21
6
How does the National Party argue its education reforms compare to international models?
4:21–4:43
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