Guidelines being finalised on weight of school bags

Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 17

After years of wait, the department of school education in Kashmir is soon coming up with detailed guidelines regarding the weight of school bags, a cause for concern for parents.

An official of the school education department said the guidelines were being finalised and would be made public soon. He said the schools would have to follow the guidelines, particularly for the lower classes, where from most of the complaints of heavy school bags have been received.

“We have been working on it. The specific guidelines will be for all schools in the state,” an official of the school education department said, adding that the recommendations of the committee, which was constituted for the purpose, have been taken into consideration.

One of the recommendations of the expert committee is to keep the single-book system up to primary classes. It has suggested the use of lightweight school bags, preferably waterproof. It has said the weight of the bags should not exceed 1.5 kg.

In November last year, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had issued general guidelines regarding the weight of the school bags for all states and union territories.

In Jammu and Kashmir, officials had then said they would issue separate guidelines for the schools.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development had said the weight of a school bag should be 1.5 kg up to second primary, 3 kg for standard III to V, 4 kg in case of the students of VI and VII standard.

“The schools were closed for the winter break for three months. Now, as the schools are opening, we will soon issue the directions and they will have to be implemented in letter and spirit,” the official said.

In August 2017, the Jammu and Kashmir Government had constituted a four-member committee of educational experts to suggest ways to help reduce the weight of school bags.

The committee, which consisted mostly of former principals, had submitted a report to the government. The report has been submitted to the administrative department of the department of school education, which will be issuing the guidelines soon.

“The schools have been prescribing additional books but now they will not be allowed to prescribe anything other than the textbooks of the National Council for Educational Research and Training and Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education,” the official said.

Heavy bags a health risk 

• A survey by Government Medical College, Srinagar, had concluded that schoolchildren across Kashmir were carrying bags heavier than the recommended weight. It had said that in the absence of any regulation, the weight of school bags was posing a health risk to children
• As per the Children’s School Bag Act 2006, a bag should not weigh more than 10 per cent of a child’s total body weight