BENGALURU: While the Department of Primary and Secondary Education is set to tighten the reins on their decision to reduce the school bag weight by issuing orders to government, aided and unaided schools in the state, parents remain apprehensive about the implementation of such decisions. The body has suggested restriction of the bag weight to 10 per cent of the student’s body weight.
Ever since a report, by the Department of State Education, Research and Training in association with the Centre for Child and Law, National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru, on reducing weights of school bags was submitted to the department in 2016, guidelines for implementing the same started being planned. The Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD) had, in October 2018, also asked states to formulate policies for the same and submit a report on it.
While lauding the deartment’s decision as a welcome step, Niranjanaradhya V P, Senior Fellow and Programme Head, Centre for Child and the Law, NLSIU, one of the researchers said both the state government and the MHRD had just issued guidelines and it is the first time one can see the move being implemented. “The bag weight was prescribed after a study revealed the shocking weight children carried. Members of the medical fraternity also iterated international standards that were to be followed. Guidelines were finally made through a democratic process, in consultation with various stakeholders,” he said.
Having misgivings about the order, D Shashi Kumar, General Secretary, Associated Managements of English Medium Schools in Karnataka, told TNSE that while the department had called for meetings, none of the grievances voiced out were considered. The study, he said, held no scientific grounds. “Minimum homework could have been suggested instead of scrapping it altogether, bag weights could have been fixed as per the percentage instead of a rigid number. While the state has more than 18,000 schools, as many as 14,000 are budget schools and cannot afford the suggested infrastructure,” he added.