Reduce weight of school bags: Kashmir school education department

SRINAGAR: Heavy school bags are a serious threat to the health and well-being of the students, the School Education Department, Kashmir, said on Wednesday as it directed the heads of educational institutions in the valley to reduce the weight of the bags. “Heavy school bags are a serious threat to the health and well-being of students. The heavy school bag has severe/adverse physical effects on growing children which can cause damage to their vertebral column and knees,” the department said.

As such, it said, heads of all schools of Kashmir Division (Government as well as private) are hereby directed to strictly adhere to the revised guidelines of School Bag Policy, 2020-released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to reduce the weight of school bags for students in primary, secondary and senior secondary schools. School teachers should inform the students in advance about the books and notebooks to be brought to school on a particular day and frequently check their bags to ensure that they are not carrying unnecessary material, it directed.

Also Read | Ministry of Education releases National Achievement Survey 2021 report

The weight of the school bags, as per the policy, should be 1.6 to 2.2 kg for students of Classs I and II, 1.7 to 2.5 kg for Classes III, IV and V, 2 to 3 kg for Classes VI and VII, 2.5 to 4 kg for Class VIII, 2.5 to 4.5 kg for Classes IX and X and 3.5 to 5 kg for Classes XI and XII, the department said. There should be no bag for KG classes and the teachers should take the responsibility of checking the weight of school bags of the students and any information about heavy bags should be communicated to the parents to reduce the weight of the school bag, it said.

The department said it is the duty and the responsibility of the school management to provide quality potable water in sufficient quantity to all the students in the school so that they do not need to carry water bottles from their homes. The files and thin/light exercise books should be preferred to thick/heavy ones, it said, adding, the instructions shall be strictly adhered to.