The Ministry of Education said today that it is still revising guidelines for phone use in schools and collecting feedback, although new regulations were originally expected to take effect this month.
Current regulations are mainly based off the 2019 Guidelines for Mobile Device Use in School Campuses of Senior High and Below (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則).
Schools are required to convene teachers, parents and students to jointly set regulations, but the general principle is that phones should remain off during school hours, except for teacher-guided learning and emergency use.
Photo: Taipei Times
The Legislative Yuan held a public hearing in October last year to discuss how to prevent students from using phones in class, which affects their concentration and learning.
The ministry said it would amend the 2019 regulations in accordance with the legislature’s resolution and announced new draft guidelines for bringing phones to school in May.
These new draft guidelines are titled Guidelines for the Management of Students Bringing Mobile Devices to School Campuses of Senior High and Below (高級中等以下學校學生攜帶行動載具到校管理原則).
In elementary and junior-high schools, mobile phones would be stored in a central location by the school or individual classes, with the details subject to school board approval, the draft guidelines state.
In senior-high schools, teachers, parents and students would jointly discuss how to manage mobile phones, but each school must adopt a unified approach across all classes, they say.
After students protested the new regulations, the ministry held a public hearing in June inviting student groups and representatives to discuss the guidelines.
The ministry said today that it is still collecting opinions from all sides and would continue to carefully draft the new guidelines.
Until the new guidelines are announced, schools should continue to follow current regulations, it said.
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