AP govt to take weight off school kids

Headmasters of pvt and govt schools directed to ensure students carry minimum weight
AP govt to take weight off school kids

VIJAYAWADA: The School Education department has decided to implement the School Bag Policy-2020 from the ongoing (2022-23) academic year. Headmasters of all the government as well as the private and corporate schools were directed to design the timetable by taking the ‘School Bag Policy-2020’ into consideration and ensure that the students carry a minimum amount of weight to school as recommended in the National Education Policy-2020.

The decision, the department believes, will help the students focus more on studies, besides relieving them of their health problems such as backache. Commissioner of School Education S Suresh Kumar has issued guidelines to implement the ‘School Bag Policy-2020’ in all schools across the State.

The Commissioner said project works play a vital role in learning, so there is no need for the students to carry all their books to school. No homework should be given to the students of classes 1 and 2. For classes 3 to 5, the workbooks should be curriculum-based.

For Classes 6 to 10, homeworks should be given in such a way that it should not become a burden for students to carry too many books daily. Panguluri Anjani Kumari, a Mathematics teacher of AP Model School, Dechavaram, Palnadu, said heavy School bags are a serious threat to students. Moreover, in the schools which are functioning in multi-storied buildings, the children have to climb steps with heavy school bags. “The textbooks should be divided into four parts, for each quarter. Students need to carry the books having lessons for the particular quarter only,” the teacher said. Various studies revealed that carrying a school bag that weighs 10 percent more than the child’s body weight may lead to pain in their lower back, shoulders and hands.

Mannam Srinivas, State president, Telugu Nadu Upadhyaya Sangam (TNUS), welcomed the decision. He suggested that the teachers utilise digital lessons and interesting video lessons, which will increase the knowledge of students.

Problems with heavy school bags

Heavy school bags have severe or adverse physical effects on growing children as it can cause damage to their vertebral column and knees
Due to heavy school bags, neck muscles can be pulled which can further cause headache, shoulder pain, lower back pain, and neck and arm pain
Body posture also gets disturbed which in the long term develops imbalances in the body and affects the health of the nervous system

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