Gangwon Province schools to cut smartphone use, boost reading and physical activity

The Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education is rolling out a "smartphone-free school" policy aimed at preventing students from becoming overly dependent on their devices and helping them build healthier digital habits, an effort that will involve both schools and families.

The education office will support a range of alternative school activities — including reading, cultural arts, play and physical education — to replace smartphone use. It will also promote the distribution of "clean phones," devices with internet functions disabled that allow only calls, text messages and location tracking.

The share of teenagers considered at risk of smartphone overdependence has risen steadily to 43 percent, while student reading levels have declined and the proportion of students rated in the bottom two tiers of the school fitness assessment has grown alongside obesity rates.

The provincial education office determined that smartphone overdependence is an educational problem affecting students' overall development — undermining academic focus, limiting physical activity and weakening peer relationships — and has established a school-centered prevention framework in response.

A pilot program will launch in September at 10 elementary, middle and high schools and three kindergartens, with plans to expand to 150 institutions by 2029 based on the results.

Under the smartphone-free school model, students, parents and teachers will jointly establish smartphone use guidelines as part of school conduct rules, extending phone-free time beyond class hours to cover breaks, after-school programs and time spent waiting for school buses.

The education office also plans to launch a "delay smartphones until middle school" campaign involving all three educational stakeholders — students, parents and teachers — to help create a healthier digital environment at home.

The initiative encourages parents to delay purchasing smartphones for children during the preschool and elementary years and will designate first-graders as the initial focus group for the delay effort, expanding the program in stages. Digital citizenship education for parents and a "smartphone-free home" campaign will also be run in support.

"The moment children step outside the small rectangle of a smartphone, their real stories begin," Gangwon education superintendent Kang Sam-yeong said. "The smartphone-free school policy is not about taking phones away from children — it is about giving them back reading, art, play, physical activity and conversation with friends."