The Ministry of Education yesterday said it plans to propose a regulation banning students’ use of mobile phones on campus except for learning or emergencies.
The legislature in October last year held a public hearing, in which mandatory regulations on smartphone use at schools were suggested, as teachers had difficulties managing students.
To deal with smartphone addiction among students, the ministry has convened an interagency meeting to discuss amendments to its Guidelines on the Use of Mobile Devices on Campus at Senior-High School Level or Below (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則), expecting to complete the draft before the spring semester.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
The ministry’s Department of Information and Technology Education official Tsai Wan-lin (蔡宛霖) said that guidelines promulgated in 2019 stipulate that mobile devices must be turned off at school except for learning under the teacher’s guidance or emergencies, and students should be prevented from engaging in activities irrelevant to learning with such devices.
As representatives at the interagency meeting suggested stricter management of mobile devices on campus, the ministry would continue to consult expert opinions and other countries’ policies to revise the guidelines, Deputy Minister of Education Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) said.
A possible solution is to allow confiscation and custody of students’ smartphones by schools, he added.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
Representatives of different groups would be invited to discuss them once the amendments are drafted, it said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) cited a survey by the Ministry of Digital Affairs as saying that the severity of smartphone addiction among junior and senior-high school students is second only to that of college students.
As smartphone addiction can negatively affect learning, many countries, including the US and the UK, have promulgated regulations on students’ smartphone use, she said.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that California passed the Phone-Free Schools Act requiring high schools within the state to develop policies limiting or banning smartphone use during school hours by next year, with classroom lockers or magnetic pouches used to lock in students’ smartphones.
Meanwhile, EdYouth cofounder Lee Ruei-lin (李瑞霖) said today’s generation of students are digital natives born to live with smartphones, and they would find it intolerable to be banned from using the devices at school.
Lee cited a senior-high school student as saying that he would bring two phones to school, allowing the school to confiscate one phone while keeping another with himself.
Confiscation of smartphones is not an effective solution to digital addiction, he said, adding that the key lies in understanding students’ learning needs, enhancing the sense of meaning and guiding them to leverage digital tools in their learning journey.
A survey conducted by a student group suggested that most parents and teachers are supportive of restricting on-campus smartphone use, while half of junior-high school students and up to 90 percent of senior-high school students said they disagreed with the policy.
National Federation of Teachers’ Unions chairman Hou Chun-liang (侯俊良) said most teachers would support the ministry’s revision to the guidelines, as it would bolster students’ learning and class management.
However, feasible supplementary measures should also be established to address some students’ or parents’ special needs, and handle contravention of the rules, he said.
Smartphone addiction should be handled by employing counseling resources rather than mandatory rules, Hou added.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS