Education officials in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang have released a set of draft regulations that would limit the use of electronic devices for schoolwork, citing a need to prevent myopia.
The new rules prohibit assigning homework via apps, stating that take-home assignments should be on paper. In addition, instruction that uses electronic devices must not make up more than 30% of teaching time.The regulations fall in line with guidelines released by China’s Ministry of Education last August, according to Beijing News (in Chinese). To prevent nearsightedness among minors, it mandated that teaching and homework should not rely on electronics. The same month, China’s media regulator the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television released similar regulations targeting myopia. Those rules, which were aimed at online games, affected tech giant Tencent and smaller industry players.