No heavy school bags in Tamil Nadu anymore as per Centre norms

Chennai

After launching the ‘School-Bag 2020’ policy, the Ministry of Education had sent a letter to the State government for its implementation and also send relevant suggestions.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that though the State government introduced the trimester system in 2012-13 to reduce the burden of students carrying a heavy load of books, many schools, especially private institutions, still insist that kids carry heavy bags.

Quoting a recent survey by the Ministry, the official said that the findings revealed that 48.8 per cent school heads weighed the school bags of their students. “Items found contributing to excessive load for children above Class 6 were textbooks, which contributed a maximum of 3.5 kg and notebooks about 2.5 kg, while the lunch box and water bottle were about a kg each,” he pointed out. Stating that the State is keen on reducing the weight of bags, the official said hereafter, primary school children will not have to carry bags since all their study material would be in the classrooms. “For middle school students, it will be a maximum of 2.5 kg while school bags of high and higher secondary students will range from 2.5 kg to 5 kg,” the official said.

Claiming that most government and government-aided schools were following the rule to reduce the bag weight, he said there will be a monitoring committee in all districts for a surprise check, especially in private schools. “In addition, the government will also check and put a stop to homework being assigned for kids in Classes 1 and 2 as per guidelines,” he added.