JINAN-East China’s Shandong Province requires that teachers spend no more than 30 percent of teaching time using digital screens, according to a local plan released Tuesday.
The move came as the province, and the country at large, combats nearsightedness, or myopia, among children and teenagers.
“Schools should purchase high-standard electric whiteboards and projectors while making sure that the fonts, spacing and number of words on each page are in line with standards so that students in the last row can see clearly,” said Deng Yunfeng, head of the provincial bureau of education.
The plan also requires that teachers in kindergartens should not use televisions or projectors to teach for longer than 30 minutes at a time and the annual teaching time using these devices should be no longer than two hours each year. Students should have no less than one hour for physical exercise and need to be given physical education homework during summer and winter vacations, the plan said. China rolled out a scheme in August of 2018 to curb myopia among children and teenagers. The plan aims to keep the myopia rate among six-year-olds at around 3 percent by 2030, with the incidence among primary school students to drop below 38 percent, and the rate .