HYDERABAD: In a bid to reduce the cost of education in private schools and regulate the weight of school bags to bring about uniformity in curriculum of all schools in the country, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has instructed the District Education Officers to ensure that all schools — Central government, CBSE and those following State syllabus should abide by SCERT or NCERT curriculum and evaluation method.
| Child panel’s recommendations All affiliated schools to follow SCERT or NCERT curriculum and evaluation method Take measures to ensure no child is discriminated for using SCERT or NCERT textbooks. Take action as per the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 Schools should display these directions on their websites Schools should issue circulars to parents on the directions |
A memo to this effect was issued to all DEOs of the State recently. But officials in the education department say that the guidelines would be issued to all schools but proper implementation can happen only from the next academic year. It may be recalled the State Education Department has already issued a GO that capped the weight of the school bag way back in 2017. “The guidelines in the GO are being followed by private schools. They let children leave most of the books back in school and carry a minimum number of books to school every day,” said B Venkata Narassamma, DEO, Hyderabad.
As per the GO, students of classes I and II should not carry bags weighing more than 1.5 kg, while for Classes III to V, the weight should not exceed 3 kg. With regard to ensuring that all schools affiliated to State/Central Board follow the curriculum and evaluation procedure in elementary classes given by SCERT/NCERT, B Seshu Kumari, director, SCERT, said that at primary level all schools have to follow SCERT or NCERT books. Hyderabad DEO, however, feels that implementation cannot happen until next academic year. Parents, on the other hand, feel like other initiatives, compliance to these recommendations will remain on paper.
“These guidelines will prove futile due to lack of monitoring mechanism. The real problem is who will monitor that school use only SCERT or NCERT books and who will weigh the school bags to ensure the load is within the prescribed limits?” asked Nagati Narayana, president Telangana Parents Association (TPA).