Indonesia The city of Bandung will give students 2,000 chicks to raise to help them break the habit of using smartphones.

New 4-day-old chickens will be distributed to elementary and junior high school students in Bandung City, West Java Province, in the coming weeks. They have to feed the chickens before and after school, and can raise them at home or on campus if there is no space.

At the kick-off ceremony of the project on November 21, the chicks were given to the students by the authorities with a paper with the words "Please take good care of me," affixed to the cage.

"This project involves a disciplinary aspect," said Mayor of Bandung, Mr. Oded Muhammad Danial. He announced a chicken raising project last month, but city officials need more time to arrange logistics with local chicken farms.

In addition to helping students get rid of the habit of glued to electronic devices, the project is also part of a national plan to expand education for children initiated by President Joko Widodo.

Yayah Ratnasari, a parent, strongly supports the idea of using chickens instead of smartphones and even hopes this project will encourage her son to become a rancher. "Looking after chickens is more beneficial than playing smartphones," she said.

Meanwhile, her son, Rabil, was not very excited. "Playing a smartphone is much more interesting," the boy said.