Schools' extreme reaction should be reviewed in light of digital age

Banning smartphones in classrooms is nothing new in China. Even without the regulation from the Ministry of Education and seven other departments, phones have always been banned in most Chinese primary and middle schools.

When I attended high school in 2008, students were not allowed to bring phones into classrooms. It did not bother me much because I did not have my own phone or computer before I went to college in 2011.

For high-school students in China, the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, has always been the most important thing. Everything comes secondary compared with gaokao. For middle-school students, their most important thing is to study hard and get enrolled into a good high school. For primary school students, it's to get into a good middle school.