Aiming to keep bags of schoolchildren light, the CBSE has urged teachers to discourage senior students from carrying heavy reference books and also continue keeping books of children up to Class 2 on
Aiming to keep bags of schoolchildren light, the CBSE has urged teachers to discourage senior students from carrying heavy reference books and also continue keeping books of children up to Class 2 on the school.
In a notification issued by the CBSE, the board has come up with various recommendations, including the suggestion that school heads and teachers should ensure that senior students bring books according to the timetable, and discourage them from carrying heavy reference books or other such materials to school.
The board also said it should be ensured that the school curriculum supports more activity-based, ICT-supported learning for all the main subjects in all classes, as far as possible.
However, another suggestion, which the CBSE offered, is that homework should be “staggered” to prevent overload and said that academic coordinators or supervisors may monitor this.
The schools have also been asked to explore the possibility of block scheduling of subject classes in the class timetable.
The communication sent by the CBSE to all the schools said, “Co-curricular activities should be conducted every day, and scheduled in the time table accordingly, to ensure the balance of bag weight throughout the academic session. School heads should counsel parents and teachers about developmental issues caused by children carrying heavy bags to school. Number of textbooks should be restricted to the prescribed norms [NCERT], particularly at the primary and upper primary levels. Also the books should not be covered with non-biodegradable plastic sheet.”
It also added that schools may provide racks with locks in all classrooms, where reference books, sport equipment and uniforms can be safely stored without needing to be carried to school. To promote good posture, the schools should ask students to carry well-designed backpacks correctly, and should set up class libraries, the CBSE suggested.
