The state human rights watchdog said Friday that a private high school in the southeastern city of Busan refused its recommendation for the school to revise a policy that bans student possession of mobile phones. 

Last April, the child rights committee at the National Human Rights Commission recommended the school to suspend its collection of students' mobile phones under an existing ban on their possession and use during school hours.

The committee said the school could have considered other ways to achieve its educational objective, while minimizing damage to the students, such as only restricting phone possession and usage during class. It decided that the school policy had excessively violated the students' right to freedom of communication.

The school, however, maintained the ban, which it said was decided after collecting opinions from within the school. It even went further to add a new rule classifying mobile phones as an item that causes disruption in the classroom.

The committee expressed regret over the school's response, stressing that schools have an obligation to respect and protect students' rights as stipulated in the Constitution and the international human rights treaty.