China just drafted a law that will restrict teachers from assigning homework via apps. The Chinese leaders have passed this regulation in their bid to help improve the school children's eyesight and avoid myopia, an eye disorder.
USA Today reported that the new rule was announced on Monday, Feb. 18 and this was especially directed to the teachers in Zhejiang province. The educators were instructed to refrain from handing down app-based assignments to their students and encourage them to ask the kids to write down the tasks on paper instead.
The regulation was made after cases of myopia in schoolchildren soared and the use of gadgets was partly blamed for the incidence of the said eye disorder in middle school kids. The ban on apps-based homework will lessen the time that the children spend on their gadgets and eventually prevent myopia.
As stipulated in the newly-drafted law, the students must not use any gadgets or electronic device for more than 30 percent of the lesson time per class. It was also stressed that schools should organize sports activities like basketball and soccer.
This ruling followed after a National and provincial guideline was released in December 2018. It asked parents to monitor their children and they should be allowed to use the gadgets for just 20 minutes per day.
Further, Sixth Tone noted that before the ban, teachers usually assigned homework using different educational apps created by the brand 17ZUOYE. It is said to be utilized in around 120,000 Chinese schools today and the brand recorded 60 million users for this.
Moreover, the ban was implemented after parents expressed concern over their kids' excessive use of apps for their assignments. They said that this also encourages the kids to use the devices on gaming. Plus, when it was revealed that almost 89 percent of school children are shortsighted, they immediately knew that the use of devices in schools should be lessened if not restricted altogether.
Incidentally, when the rule was announced, some teachers said that they were conflicted. "My school often gives kids electronic schoolwork as lots of homework needs to be done on computers and iPads," one teacher said. "Having to use electronic products harms the kids' eyesight. As a teacher, I am conflicted but all I can do is remind them frequently to protect their eyesight."
Meanwhile, the guideline that bans teachers from assigning homework through apps was jointly issued by China's National Health Commission and the Ministry of Education. The two state departments want to lower the rate of myopia and aiming to maintain the nearsightedness rate of 6-year-old kids at just three percent by 2030.
