Chandigarh: Schools told to implement school bag weight policy

CHANDIGARH: The

UT education department

on Friday ordered heads and principals of all the government

schools

to implement school bag policy. A letter in this regard was sent to the schools along with the school bag policy issued by the ministry of human resource and development (MHRD) on Friday.


Schools have been asked to comply with the recommendations made by the committee in the school bag policy.

According to the new policy, the total weight of all the textbooks for

primary classes

should not exceed 2 kg. If all the subjects are not being taught on a day or if sharing of books are allowed among the peers, then the weight should be reduced to 1 kg. This also applies for upper primary and secondary classes.

The committee has recommended three books, weighing 1,078 grams and 1,080 grams for

classes

I and II, four

text books

, weighing 1,572 grams, 1,804 grams, 1,916 grams for classes III to V, respectively.

For classes VI and VI,10 text books, weighing 3,080 grams and 3,508 grams have been recommended. 11 text books, weighing 3,640 grams have been recommended for class VIII, 15 textbooks, weighing 4,400 grams for class IX and13 textbooks for class X with a total weight of 4,182 grams.

For classes XI and XII, the school or the management may plan the weight according to the subjects offered under different streams.

No

homework

is to be given up to Class II and a maximum of two hours a week from classes III to V. For primary-middle school (classes VI to VIII), a maximum of one-hour a day homework should be given to i.e. about five to six hours a week.

At secondary and higher secondary levels, a maximum of two hours a day i.e. about10 to12 hours a week homework should be given.

The expert committee formed by the government observed that the

school curriculum

, which includes subjects offered at different stages, homework, etc., has strong correlation with the weight of school bags. For example, more number of subjects offered in schools implies that more textbooks need to be carried and homework on daily basis implies additional weight of homework note books in the bag. Therefore, based on the survey conducted by the committee and intense discussions, the expert group has made various recommendations for reducing weight of school bags.