Centre decides to go light on the school going children!

Guwahati: The heavyweight schoolbag that school going children carry on their backs often makes one worry for them. Thankfully the government at the Centre noticed it lately and has decided to formulate guidelines and set a proper weight limit for a school going child. As formulated by the government, there will be different weight limits for students of different classes.

The HRD ministry has called it as “rationalisation” of school syllabi and has made it clear that Class X school bags must not exceed 5kg while for Classes I and II, they should not be more than 1.5kg.

A list of the weight limits fixed for the students of different classes is mentioned here:

Class I and II: 1.5 kg

Class III to V: 2-3 kg

Class VI and VII: 4 kg

Class VIII and IX: 4.5 kg

Class X: 5 kg

Along with the weights of the school bags for the students of different classes, Centre’s letter to states, UTs and education boards also mentions that there will be “homework” for Classes I and II students. Also, these students will have no extra subject other than language and mathematics. Classes III to V syllabus will comprise of environmental science (EVS), mathematics and languages only.

HRD ministry order states, “Schools should not prescribe any other subjects except Language and Mathematics for classes 1 and 2 and Language, EVS and Mathematics for classes 3 to 5 students as prescribed by the NCERT.”

The central government letter asks the state government, UTs, and education boards to “formulate guidelines to regulate the teaching of subjects and of school bags in accordance with the government of India instructions”.

The order letter also asks the concerned authority to ensure that the students are not made to carry additional books and materials to their classes which unnecessarily adds more weight to their bags.

A senior HRD ministry official says, “While certain norms related to the weight of school bags and burden of homework on children already exist, the ministry has again written to the states in line with the high court order.”

Also read: Study Finds Only 27.2 % School Going Children of Delhi Consume Fruits Daily