School phone ban aims to boost grades

Top priority

Getting used to the smartphone ban was easy for Wuhan high school student Xu Lingzhe as he does not use the device often. He said his top priority is to achieve high scores in the national college entrance exam and ensure that all the hard work he has done in preparation for the test pays off.

The 15-year-old said he brings a feature phone－which has no internet access－to school and leaves his smartphone at home.

"It would be hard to focus on studying if my smartphone was within reach, so leaving it behind is the best way to make sure I do not waste too much time on it," he said.

Leaving the smartphone at home also ensures he has more time to do other things, such as playing sports or simply hanging out with classmates, he said.

Every day, Xu spends about half an hour on his smartphone at home, mainly chatting with friends or checking news and social media platforms to stay connected with the world, he said.

"We high school students spend most of the day studying, so a small amount of screen time can help us relax," he added.

Zhou Yuehan, a high school student in Wuhan, said she also found it relatively easy to adjust to the ban. She got her first smartphone while in primary school, just as most of her classmates and friends also started owning the devices.

Now, she does not bring the phone to school. Instead she uses it on the way home when her parents pick her up after school and hand it to her.

The 17-year-old said she mainly uses the device to follow the latest updates about her pop star idols.

"I agree with the smartphone ban because it would be hard for me not to check for updates about these stars," she said.

"We can easily become dependent on smartphones, and without such strict measures it would be extremely difficult to overcome that reliance."

Zhou also considers studying to be her top priority and she wants to enroll at Fudan University, a prestigious school in Shanghai.

"If I am able to go to my dream university, not playing with my phone will totally have been worth it," she said.