Kashmir: Weight of school bags reduced for child welfare

“Heavy school bags are a serious threat to the health and well-being of students.

The heavy school bag has severe/adverse physical effects on growing children which can cause damage to their vertebral column and knees,” the School Education Department, Kashmir, said on Wednesday.

The heads of all schools in Kashmir Division (Government as well as private) have now been directed to strictly adhere to the revised guidelines of the School Bag Policy, 2020-released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to reduce the weight of school bags for students in primary, secondary and senior secondary schools.

The weight of the school bags, as per the directive, is supposed to be 1.6 to 2.2 kg for students of Class I and II, 1.7 to 2.5 kg for Classes III, IV, and V, 2 to 3 kg for Classes VI and VII, 2.5 to 4 kg for Class VIII, 2.5 to 4.5 kg for Classes IX and X and 3.5 to 5 kg for Classes XI and XII, the department said.

The students of KG classes should not be asked to carry bags and the teachers should take the responsibility of checking the weight of the school bags of the students. If they find heavy bags, the problem should be communicated to the parents to reduce the weight of the school bag, said the notice.

The department has announced it is the duty and the responsibility of the school management to provide quality potable water in sufficient quantity to all the students in the school so that they do not need to carry water bottles from their homes. The files and thin/light exercise books should be preferred to thick/heavy ones, it said, adding, that the instructions shall be strictly adhered to.