By Aminul Islam Mirja
NEW DELHI, Dec 3, 2018 (BSS) – The Delhi government has officially fixed the weight of school bags for class one to 10 as heavy school bags are a serious threat to the health and wellbeing of the kids.
The Delhi government has issued a circular to this end on Saturday following centre’s order and guidelines for capping the weight of school bags for classes 1 to 10.
According to the circular, school bags for students in class 1 and 2 should not be above 1.5 kg; for classes 3 to 5 (two/three kg), classes 6-7 (four kg), class 8-9 (4.5 kg), and class 10 (five kg).
The circular asked the schools not to assign any home work to class 1 and two children and inform the students in advance about the books, note books to be brought to the school on a particular day.
“Heavy school bags are a serious threat to the health and wellbeing of the school going students. It has a severe adverse physical effect on the growing children which can cause damage to their vertebral column and knees,” the circular said.
The load of the school bag, according to the circular, is increased by bringing textbooks, guides, homework/class work notebooks, rough work notebooks, water bottles, lunch box and sometimes the heavy bag itself.
“The schools running under directorate of the education have to follow the textbooks prescribed by the SCERT, NCERT and CBSE,” it added.
The circular further said that the number of textbooks in different classes should not exceed the number prescribed by the statutory bodies.
It asked the head of schools and teachers to frame a well-designed timetable for each class so that children do not have to carry too many books to the school.
It also said that reading books in library and participation in games, sports, art, culture and other creative and co-curricular activities for holistic development of students must be encouraged.
“Three textbooks (Hindi, English and Mathematics) have been prescribed for classes 1 and 2. There shall not be any home work for these classes”, the circular said.
“As per the curriculum, six textbook have been prescribed for class six to 10, three textbooks for three languages and one for math, science and social studies each,” said the circular.
The ill-effects of heavy school bags may not be immediately evident but physicians say they can have an adverse impact on the nervous system besides being a physical burden for children.
They said heavy schoolbags can cause lasting damage like spinal deformities as children’s skeletal frames are not fully formed, the Times of India reported quoting Dr Ramneek Mahajan, Director, Orthopaedics and Joint Replacement, MAX Smart Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi.