The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to ensure that homework is banned for students of Classes 1 and 2 all over the country, regardless of the educational board of the school. The directive was issued with the help of recommendations from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), according to a report in the Hindu.

Justice N Kirubakaran, who passed the order, added that no subjects apart from language and Mathematics should be forced on Class 1 and 2 children. Students of Classes 3 to 5 should only have EVS (Environmental Science) as the additional subject. He added that all schools throughout the country should comply with the subjects and homework directive, failing which the schools will be disaffiliated from the NCERT.

Flying squads should be formed by the states to monitor whether schools are complying with the court's order, he added. He also stated that the schools should be informed of this decision before circulars are published.

The directions will come into effect for the academic year 2018-2019.

Any attempt to violate the order of this court would be viewed as very serious, as it affects young children and our nation, the order reportedly states.

Earlier the court had also directed the Centre to formulate a "child school bag policy" to ensure that children don't carry heavy bags, applying to all states and union territories.

“Neither are children weightlifters nor school bags load containers,” Justice Kirubakaran said, before asking the policy to be formulated on the lines of the Children School Bag (Limitation on Weight) Bill 2006 to reduce the number of books that children have to carry.