Concerned that students continue to stoop under the weight of heavy school bags, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday asked affiliated schools to enforce additional measures to lighten students’ burden.
In the footsteps of the Maharashtra government — which enforced a new school bag policy last year limiting the weight of the bag to 10% the weight of the child — the CBSE in April issued an advisory that affiliated schools, too, must make bags lighter. The board has suggested ways in which schools, teachers and parents can achieve this, based on their feedback.
One of the major suggestions is that schools should ask students to stick to the timetable and make them aware about the effects of fatigue caused owing to heavy bags on their daily performance in class. “Young children whose spine is at a crucial stage of growth are most susceptible to back, muscle, shoulder pain and in extreme cases the distortion of spinal cord… the impact may well be irreversible,” read the circular issued by KK Choudhary, director, academic, research and training
