VIJAYAWADA: Even though the Union HRD Ministry had issued orders to all States to limit the weight of school bags, it appears that the school students in the State have to carry heavy bags with numerous books this academic year as well. The reason: The HRD ministry’s guidelines are not likely to be implemented in the State schools in the 2019-20 academic year as the State government is yet to issue an order to the officials concerned in the School Education department.
According to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), there should not be any homework for the students studying in Classes 1 and 2 and there should be only two subjects – Mathematics and Environmental Science (EVS) — for them. Similarly for the students of Classes 3 to 5, there should be only three subjects — one language, EVS and Mathematics.
The weight of school bags for students of Classes 1 and 2 should not exceed 1.5 kg, while the school bag of students of Classes 3 and 4 should weigh between 2 kg and 3 kg. The school bag of students of Classes 6 and 7 should not be more than 4 kg, while weight of school bags of Classes 8 and 9 students should not be above 4.5 kg. The school bag of a Class 10 student should not weigh above 5 kg, the order of the Union HRD Ministry said.
The School Education department had appointed an expert committee to implement the guidelines of the MHRD. However, the State government is yet to issue any order to the department on the matter. The schools across the State are set to reopen on June 13. K Sandhya Rani, Commissioner of School Education department said, “We couldn’t implement the guidelines of the HRD Ministry from this academic year as we didn’t receive any instructions from the State government.
By the time the new government forms, the academic year will be started.” Meanwhile, educationists and student leaders demand implementation of the HRD guidelines from this year itself. “For the benefit of students, the HRD Ministry had issued guidelines to be followed in December 2018 itself. Officials wasted all these six months and now they are saying that they don’t have enough time to implement these guidelines from this academic year. It is nothing but sheer negligence of the officials and the government,” said MLC KS Lakshman Rao.