The Education Ministry has issued a new policy on school bags and other recommendations such as no homework up to class 2, students to be provided with lockers and digital weighing machines in schools to be installed, freshwater availability on the school premises and disallowing wheeled carrier bags.
According to the suggestions which are in congruity to the new National Educational Policy (NEP), said school bags weight for students between classes 1-10 should not be more than 10 per cent of their body weight. “Based on research studies conducted in this area, recommendations of international agencies about the standard weight of the school bag is recommended to follow the universally accepted ratio of weight for the school bag as 10 per cent of the body weight of the student across classes 1 to 10,” it said.
Monitor school bag weight
All schools in the country are directed to install a digital weighing machine on school premises and monitor the weight of school bags regularly.
The policy document stated, “School bags need 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.”
It added, “Schools need to ensure that the facilities which are mandated for schools to provide, such as mid-day meals, etc. are adequate and of good quality so that children are not carrying items, such as a lunchbox.”
The school management will be responsible to provide clean drinking water in adequate quantity and should be accessible to all the students in the school.
Flexible class time-table
As per the latest recommendation, school or class, time table must be made flexible and must include a slot for leisure activities like sports and physical education, reading of books available in a school other than textbooks, etc.
“For selecting a textbook for children, the standard 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.
Limit on homework
The new policy suggests no homework for children up to class 2, on 2 hours of homework every day for children in Classes 9 to 12.
The document said, “As children in classes 1 and 2 are too small to sit for long hours doing homework, they need not be given any kind of homework. Rather they need to be encouraged in the class to speak about how they spent their evening at home, the games they played, the food they ate, etc.”
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The teachers should know every student's evening routine, while classes 3, 4, and 5 students should be given with a maximum of 2 hours of homework per week. Whereas classes 6 to 8, students will be given homework of a maximum of one hour a day.
“At this stage, children develop the habit of sitting little longer with concentration, so they can be given homework such as writing a story, an essay or an article on contemporary issues; writing an article about the problems in the locality; measures for saving electricity and petrol, among other things,” the policy suggested.