No homework, no school bag for CBSE students up to Class II

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, August 20

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has directed heads of all schools affiliated to it to ensure that there is no school bag and no homework for the students up to Class II.

Taking a serious view of non-compliance of its earlier advisories sent to all affiliated schools, Dr Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academics), CBSE, said the schools needed to scrupulously follow the Board’s directions to reduce the burden of bags and homework on children in order to provide them adequate space and time for other activities.

In a letter sent to all CBSE affiliated schools on Saturday, the Director (Academics) conveyed that not following the directions was the violation of the Madras High Court orders.

In an order issued recently, the High Court has asked the state governments and Union Territories to reduce weight of the satchels of schoolchildren and do away with homework for classes I and II, said the director, quoting the High Court orders.

“Neither children are weightlifters, nor school bag load containers,” the High Court said in its order while directing the Centre to formulate a policy forthwith on the lines of the Children School Bags (Limitation on Weight) Bill, 2006.

Giving reference of its 12-year-old circular (no. 07/2006 dated May 4, 2006), the CBSE Director said the Board had earlier drawn the attention to the need for reducing the bag load on children in order to provide them adequate space and time for other activities.

The importance of making the learning process enjoyable for children by restricting the number of prescribed textbooks and reducing curriculum burden on the learners, besides other measures like continuous and comprehensive evaluation and emphasis on soft subjects like dance, music and fine arts was impressed upon schools by the Board, said the director. But there was no compliance of the orders, he added. 

Other than Class I and II students, the High Court has asked the CBSE and state education boards to ensure that the weight of the school bags shall not be more than 10 per cent of the weight of the child. 

Asking the CBSE and state education boards to end the affiliation of the schools which violate these rules, the court has said the only additional subject for Class III to V should be environmental studies.

The court has even asked the CBSE to conduct sudden inspection of its schools to ensure that the orders were being implemented.

The school should be aware that heavy bags have their effect on the daily performance of the students. Moreover, the spine of the young children is at a crucial stage of growth and most susceptible to back, muscle and shoulder pain, said a senior doctor at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot.

Inderjit Kaur, District Education Officer (Elementary), Faridkot, feigned ignorance about such court orders.