Heavy weight on tiny shoulders

CHENNAI: The issue of students carrying heavy schoolbags has once again come to the limelight, especially those in private schools. Though the Union government and the State have issued several notifications in this issue, private schools in Tamil Nadu do not seem to follow the trimester system.

Such a system would reduce the burden of students carrying a huge quantity of books. Even some government schools have been forcing the children to carry heavy bags.

Many private schools have taken steps such as allowing students to keep their books in classrooms. However, it has not worked effectively as students are unable to revise their classroom work at home without the notebooks.

As most students studying from elementary to middle-level school carry lunch bags and water bottles, parents too complain that their wards were suffering from back pain often. Adding to the woes is the commute where children travel by share autos, autos and buses.

What the law says

The Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Department of School Education and Literacy has launched the ‘School Bag Policy-2020’.

According to the policy, the weight of schoolbags for students of classes 1 and 2 should not exceed 1.5 kg. Similarly, the maximum weight of the bags for classes 3 to 5 students is 2-3 kg. It’s 4 kg for classes 6 and 7, 4.5 kg for classes 8 and 9, and 5 kg for Class 10 students.

Additionally, the School Education Department also instructed that students should not be asked to bring additional books and other materials apart from the prescribed textbooks. Management of all the schools are supposed to make sure that students carry textbooks as per the timetable.

Similarly, the policy also highlighted that weight of school bags needs to be monitored and checked on a regular basis in the school. For this, every school needs to keep a digital weighing machine in the premises. Likewise, an awareness programme needs to be held in the beginning of every academic session for parents and students.

Rules not followed

Though the State government had several times issued circulars to the schools to strictly follow the rule about the weight of the bags, teachers opined that it was not practically possible to weigh each bag.

“My school accommodates over 700 children. It’s not viable to monitor each student on regular basis,” a headmaster of a government school in the city, said. “Since both government and private schools have common syllabi and textbooks, students have no choice but to carry the books that are required for classes.”

A senior official from the School Education Department suggested a way to reduce the burden — no homework up to Class 2, and a maximum of two hours a week from classes 3 to 5. “Similarly, in from Classes 6 to 8, a maximum of one hour a day (about 5-6 hours/week) and for higher secondary students, homework should be a maximum of 2 hours a day (about 10-12 hours/week). This will lessen the need to carry heavy textbooks,” he added.

KR Nandhakumar, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Private Nursery, Primary, Matriculation, Higher Secondary, and CBSE Schools Association, said: “We strictly told our members to follow the rule. It’s unfortunate that certain private schools do not adopt it.”

View of students, parents

K Vidhya, studying in Class 8 in a private school at Pammal, said: “Carrying a heavy bag every day is difficult enough I also have to change the bag often due to lack of durability. My bag cannot take the weight of the books for long. Even my friends face the same issue.”

S Sunitha Kumar, a homemaker in Velachery, said, “Since I’m dropping my child to school, who is studying in Class 12, I use to carry her bag regularly. It was very heavy for me. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for my daughter.”

Tamil Nadu Parents-Teachers Welfare Association president, S Arumainathan, said that the issue of carrying will be resolved if all schools strictly adopt a tri-semester system. “Otherwise, the problem would continue,” he added.