TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's top education official defended a controversial new smartphone restriction policy on Thursday (May 15), citing concerns for adolescent wellbeing. Education Minister Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) reaffirmed the Ministry of Education's (MOE, 教育部) focus on healthy youth development while addressing mounting criticism of the plan announced a day earlier. The policy, set to take effect when classes resume in September, will mandate that schools collect and manage students' mobile devices during school hours.
The initiative has drawn sharp rebuke from education sector representatives. Lin Shuo-chieh (林碩杰), who heads the National Federation of Education Unions (全國教育產業總工會), Taiwan's largest teachers' organization, condemned the directive for transferring enforcement burden to already-strained school staff. Minister Cheng conceded these implementation challenges but defended the policy as necessary protection against smartphone addiction among youth, while suggesting some flexibility might be granted for older students engaged in self-directed academic activities.
The education minister positioned Taiwan's approach within a broader global movement to curb classroom smartphone use, pointing to Australia's 2024 restrictions that reportedly yielded improved concentration and academic outcomes among students according to 80% of school administrators surveyed. Cheng referenced France's more stringent campus-wide prohibition and emerging regulations across American states as evidence of international consensus regarding digital devices' detrimental effects on learning environments.
The Ministry of Education has outlined a collaborative implementation strategy involving Taiwan's 22 local government education departments and school leadership organizations nationwide. This coordinated approach aims to ensure consistent application of the smartphone restrictions while addressing regional variations in school environments and resource availability across the island's diverse educational landscape. ◼
