Chinese universities launch phone-free classes

CHANGCHUN, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Several universities in northeast China's Jilin Province have introduced phone-free classes to improve academic results.

When students enter the classroom, their smart phones must be placed into a bag and hung on the wall.

"We are given a bag with a student ID to hold our cell phones," said Jia Qi, a freshman at Jilin Huaqiao University of Foreign Languages. "One student is appointed to supervise students to hand in cell phones in every class."

"The move can help reduce students' reliance on smart phones and enhance interaction between students and teachers," said Ran Xiangyun, an associate professor at the university.

"We allow students to use smart phones if the class requires students to search online for information," said Ran.

According to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center, about 753 million Chinese used mobile phones to surf the internet in 2017, with people aged 20 to 29 accounting for as much as 30 percent of the total online population. Enditem