– Mita Mukherjee

The weight of schoolbags should not exceed ten percent of the body weight of students across classes I to XII, there should be “no bags” at pre-primary level, no homework till class II and schools must ensure that children are not required to carry too many books to schools on a regular basis, according to instructions given to schools by the new BJP government in West Bengal on Wednesday to reduce schoolbag burden on students.

An order issued by the state school education department containing a list of measures, prescribed in accordance with the School Bag Policy of the Centre, says that a number of surveys held by expert groups on School Bags have linked the increasing cases of backaches and neck aches among children to heavy school bags.

“The issue of bad posture and backaches in children and adolescents has become an issue in India and other countries of the World. The school bag is common cause of backache in school going children. A heavy bag may cause a child to compensate by leaning his body forward and this can strain muscles in his neck, shoulder and back. The child may also find it difficult to put the bag on on and take it off, or he falls frequently in school while carrying his school bag……” the order read.

In the detail guidelines issued to the schools on Wednesday evening, the government has suggested a string of measures the schools would have to take to maintain proper school bag weight.

In the order, a chart has been provided suggesting the required weight of bag according to the body weight of a child.

For the pre-primary Classes where the average body weight of a child is between 10kg and 16kg, there should be “no bag” at all.

The government limited the bag weight between 1.7 to 2.5 kg for Classes III to V, two to three kg for Classes VI to VII . Two and half kg to four kg for Class VIII, for Classes IX and X 2.5 kg and 4.5kg and 3.5 kg to 5kg for Classes XI and XII.

Schools have been asked to monitor the body weight of every child and every school must have weighing machines to ensure the body weight of the students are measured on a regular basis

Among other measures suggested by the government, the schools have been asked to provide pure drinking water and quality mid-day meal to ensure that children do not have to carry water bottles and lunch boxes to school.

The guidelines also recommend restructuring of daily timetables so that students can carry minimum number of books to school. The guidelines also suggests limits in use of exercise books.

The new policy also suggests restrictions on homework. There should be no homework till class II. For classes III to V homework should not exceed two hours a week. Students in classes VI to VII must not be assigned more than one hour homework a day. For classes IX to XII, homework will have to be limited to two hours a day.

In 2019, the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government had introduced lockers in 122 government institutions to reduce schoolbag burden.

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