BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to form squads at district level to check the weight of school bags of children and ensure that it doesn’t exceed the prescribed guidelines. Weight of school bag should not exceed 1.5 kg for Classes I and II students and three kg for Classes III to V. Similarly, the weight of school bag shouldn’t exceed four kg for Classes VI and VII students and 4.5 kg for VII and IX. The weight of bag should also not exceed five kg for Class X students.
The School and Mass Education department in a letter has asked Collectors and District Education Officers (DEOs) to take measures in this regard. The CBSE Regional Director, Bhubaneswar has also been asked to issue necessary instruction to schools. Many schools affiliated to CBSE and ICSE are not adhering to the guidelines issued by the department in March this year.
The department has also asked schools not to give any homework to Class I and II students and use NCERT prescribed books as study and teaching materials. Authorities at district level will now conduct surprise checks in schools and take stringent action for non-compliance.
As per the Government order, squads at district level will be formed by the Collectors with District Education Officer/District Project Coordinators as chairman and block education officers, police officials and workers of voluntary and non-Government organisations as its members. The squads will visit all schools including the ICSE and CBSE ones regularly and also conduct surprise checks to verify if they are complying with the Government order.