Students yesterday raised concerns about accountability for centralized phone storages at schools and whether school affairs councils would honor democratically reached decisions.
The students made the comments during a Ministry of Education forum on a draft policy for managing mobile phone use in schools.
The draft policy, announced last month, states that elementary and junior-high school students must obtain parental consent to bring mobile devices to school and that devices would be stored centrally by school authorities.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
High schools would be required to hold discussions with students, parents and teachers on device management mechanisms, the policy says.
The ministry invited students and youth representatives to speak at the national forum.
Department of Information and Technology Education senior analyst Pei Shan-cheng (裴善成) said the earlier guidelines on mobile phone use did not distinguish between education level or usage context.
In contrast, the new draft aims to create “phased, flexible and clear” management rules, he said.
The draft requires junior-high and elementary students’ phones to be centrally stored, while high schoolers’ phones may be managed individually, by class or school-wide, Pei said.
The rules at high schools would need to be democratically discussed among teachers, students and parents, with students comprising at least one-third of participants, he said, adding that the school affairs council must respect the consensus reached.
At the forum, a student from Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School said collective storage of mobile devices makes responsibility for loss or damage difficult to determine, adding that the collection and redistribution of phones would take time.
Many teachers at their school also use phones in class, the student said.
An Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University student said it is unclear whether the school affairs council would respect the results of the discussions, while a student from New Taipei Municipal Banqiao Senior High School said the draft policy lacked enforcement mechanisms.
Department Director Wu Ying-tien (吳穎沺) said that the ministry would review the draft in response to students’ concerns.
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