<p class="title">Officials in one Indonesian city have hatched a plan to wean children off smartphones by giving them their own fluffy chicks to raise.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Around 2,000 four-day-old chicks will be handed out to pupils at elementary and junior high schools in Bandung in the coming weeks in an attempt to distract the kids from their gadgets.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Students must feed their new pets before and after school and can keep them at home or on school premises if they don't have space in their backyard.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Authorities in the city, around 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta, have dubbed the unusual project "chicken station".</p>.<p class="bodytext">At a ribbon-cutting held Thursday, a dozen chicks in cages were distributed with a sign that read: "Please take good care of me".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"There is an aspect of discipline here," said Bandung's mayor Oded Muhammad Danial.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the project isn't just about curbing schoolkids' phone habits, heYayah Ratnasari said -- it is also part of a national plan to broaden pupils' education launched by President Joko Widodo.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Danial first announced the chick project last month but said the city needed time to sort out logistics with local chicken farms.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Mother Yayah Ratnasari was sold on the chicks-not-smartphones plan, and even expressed hopes it might encourage her son to become a poultry farmer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It's more beneficial for them to take care of chicks than play with smartphones," she said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But her teenage son Rabil was less enthused.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It's more interesting playing with a smartphone," he said.</p>
<p class="title">Officials in one Indonesian city have hatched a plan to wean children off smartphones by giving them their own fluffy chicks to raise.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Around 2,000 four-day-old chicks will be handed out to pupils at elementary and junior high schools in Bandung in the coming weeks in an attempt to distract the kids from their gadgets.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Students must feed their new pets before and after school and can keep them at home or on school premises if they don't have space in their backyard.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Authorities in the city, around 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta, have dubbed the unusual project "chicken station".</p>.<p class="bodytext">At a ribbon-cutting held Thursday, a dozen chicks in cages were distributed with a sign that read: "Please take good care of me".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"There is an aspect of discipline here," said Bandung's mayor Oded Muhammad Danial.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the project isn't just about curbing schoolkids' phone habits, heYayah Ratnasari said -- it is also part of a national plan to broaden pupils' education launched by President Joko Widodo.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Danial first announced the chick project last month but said the city needed time to sort out logistics with local chicken farms.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Mother Yayah Ratnasari was sold on the chicks-not-smartphones plan, and even expressed hopes it might encourage her son to become a poultry farmer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It's more beneficial for them to take care of chicks than play with smartphones," she said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But her teenage son Rabil was less enthused.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It's more interesting playing with a smartphone," he said.</p>