Rules to reduce weight of schoolbags issued

From monitoring school bags of children to ensure they do not carry heavy load to teaching them correct lifting and carrying techniques are among the guidelines issued by the Delhi government to heads of schools.

The directorate of education (DoE) has sent seven-point guidelines to principals of government and private schools in the national capital for reducing the weight of schoolbags for children.

“It has been observed that schoolchildren are carrying very heavy bags to school which is affecting their health adversely. These small children need to be necessarily spared from such burden. All heads are instructed to ensure that the schoolbags of the children are not heavy and should monitor it on regular basis,” the DoE communication said.

According to the guidelines, the school principals and teachers should frame a well-designed time-table for each section of the class so that children do not have to carry too many books or notebooks to the school each day and also ensure that the co-curricular activity periods should be held along with the other periods on daily basis thereby having an equitable distribution of weight of schoolbags.

“The students should be discouraged from bringing reference books and other books to school especially in senior classes. Parents should remind and guide their children to pack the school bag daily accordingly to the time table and bring only the prescribed books and discourage their ward from carrying unnecessary items to the school,” the letter said.

“Staggered home work schedule should be planned. Sensitisation of teachers and parents should be done to create awareness of the potential problem of heavy school ags and to make them aware of the health issues which can arise due to heavy weight of schoolbags,” it added.