New Delhi: Students, especially of junior school, are often over-burdened physically by having to carry heavy school bags with multiple books weighing a lot. Now, the Education Ministry has recommended the maximum weight of school bags should be 10 per cent of the student’s weight.
This is among a slew of measures being suggested by the Centre keeping in mind the newly-introduced National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, accofding to a Times Now report.
“Based on research studies conducted in this area, recommendations of international agencies about the standard weight of school bag, it is recommended to follow universally accepted ratio of weight for school bag as 10 per cent of the body weight of the student across classes 1 to 10,” states the policy document.
It also recommends that school bags should have proper compartments. “School bag needs to be light-weight with proper compartments, and (should) contain two padded and adjustable straps that can be squarely fit on both the shoulders. Wheeled carriers should not be allowed as it may hurt children while climbing stairs.”
Facilities which are mandatory for schools to provide, like mid-day meals, should be “adequate and of good quality” so that children don’t need to carry items such as a lunch box.
“It shall be the duty and responsibility of school management to provide good quality potable water in sufficient quantity accessible to all the students in the school to avoid carrying water bottle in schoolbag or reduce its size,” it said.
“For selecting a textbook for children, the criterion of weight should be taken into consideration. The weight of each textbook may be printed on the textbook by the publishers, along with the Grams per Square Meter (GSM),” it said.
No homework till Class 2
Among other significant recommendations are no homework till Class 2 and digital weighing machines to check the weight of bags.
For classes 3 to 6, the homework should be limited to 2 hours a week; for classes 6 to 8 a maximum of 1 hour per day has been recommended; for senior classes 9 to 12, homework should be limited to a maximum of 2 hours’ of work.
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