The committee also said schools bags of ICSE and CBSE students were heavier than that of state board students. The committee also said schools bags of ICSE and CBSE students were heavier than that of state board students.

Stating that a majority of school students are suffering from muscle pain and are falling sick due to heavy bags, a committee appointed by the state government to look into the matter has recommended doing away with heavy school bags and urged all education boards to reduce the usage of notebooks and textbooks to make way for tablets and also provide study materials on websites.

The eight-member committee has submitted five observations and 44 recommendations in its report. According to the report, over 58 per cent of students below 10 years of age have mild muscle pain while 75 per cent of those below 12 years of age were found to be falling ill and having fever from time to time due to heavy bags.

“Medical experts too have issued alerts about the toll it (heavy bags) takes on the health of students. Many committees were formed and reports were submitted at state and national levels on the issue. Experts considered options ranging from ‘no school bags for kids’ to restrictions of the weight of school bags to 10 per cent of the weight of the student. However, hardly any measures were implemented. I visited a few schools and even weighed the bags. We formed a panel to come up with a solution,” said Education Minister Vinod Tawde.

The committee has also provided specimen of timetables, suggesting schools to conduct lectures/ periods of only three subjects in a day (two periods for one subject) instead of six.

The report even asks teachers to regularly check the bags of students to stop them from carrying unnecessary things. The committee recommends students to carry only light polymer bags than heavy fancy bags.

“Ideally, a school bag should weigh 10 per cent of the weight of the child. But no school is enforcing that. In fact, in most schools that we visited it was found that a majority of the students were carrying bags weighing over 20 to 30 per cent of their body weight. Students carry everything from compass box, lunch box, water bottle, notebooks, textbooks, practical journals, work experience book, school diary and drawing books and school authorities are not stopping them. Moreover, we found that students in rural areas carry lighter bags than those in urban areas,” Mahavir Mane, Director, Primary Education.

The committee also said schools bags of ICSE and CBSE students were heavier than that of state board students.

Deepshikha Srivastava, principal of Rajhans Vidyalaya at Andheri, said, “CBSE and ICSE bags are heavier as we have fat textbooks for many subjects. In our school, we inform parents every day what chapter we are going to teach the next day and ask them to dismantle the pages of the books and send on those chapters which is going to be taught. Besides the fancy backpacks used by students these days are heavier than the textbooks. Also, some students carry their tuition books along if they are directly going for extra classes after school hours.”

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