The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education is forming a 'Phone Free School Promotion Team' to ensure the successful implementation and expansion of 'Phone Free School,' the first policy of the Gyeonggi Education Transformation, in schools, and is launching full-scale support.

On the 13th, the Provincial Office of Education held the first plenary meeting of the 'Phone-Free School Promotion Team' at the Jowon Office Building to discuss the direction of implementation and plans for operating policy briefing sessions. The meeting was attended by 13 members of the promotion team, including Superintendent An Min-seok, school staff, education professionals, parents, and members of the transition committee.

'Phone-Free School' is a policy designed to foster a school culture where students can focus on learning and forming relationships away from smartphone use during school activities, and to cultivate self-regulation skills and restore the educational capacity of schools.

To this end, the task force focuses on establishing support plans, developing operational models for each school level, preparing standard operational guidelines, providing teacher training, identifying and sharing best practices, and promoting the initiative to the educational community and building consensus.

In particular, the standard operation guide will be developed considering school conditions and students' developmental stages, and is expected to include measures for student self-governance participation, communication procedures with parents, examples of alternative programs for educational activities, and methods for storing and managing smartphones.

In addition, in conjunction with the 'RAS Gyeonggi Arts and Culture Education,' support is provided to enable students to fill the time saved by reducing smartphone usage with educational activities centered on reading, arts, and sports.

Meanwhile, with the introduction of new regulations in the 'Elementary and Secondary Education Act' restricting the use of smart devices, such as mobile phones, during class starting from the first semester of 2026, schools are now able to establish regulations in their school rules restricting the use and possession of smart devices to protect students' right to learn and teachers' educational activities.

At the meeting that day, Superintendent An Min-seok emphasized, “The goal is not the Phone Free School itself, but the core objective of the policy is for students to put down their mobile phones and engage in RAS educational activities through breaking down walls,” adding, “Phone Free School, RAS, and breaking walls are a trinity and one body.”

He continued, “We will create an organizational structure that combines the three policies into one to ensure their continuous implementation,” adding, “We will actively support this system so that it operates organically within the Office of Education’s public organization.”

Starting with this general meeting of the task force, the Provincial Office of Education plans to support the stable establishment of the 'Phone-Free School' policy in schools by implementing policy briefings, gathering feedback from the field, and sharing operational examples in stages.

[News Source: Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education]