No bag day: Shivamogga implements, rest of the state yet to

The Department of Public Instruction of Karnataka, in January this year, had decided to implement no-bag day to ease the load on students from the 2018-19 academic year.

Bengaluru, Aug 9: School kids having to carry heavy bags has emerged as one of major concerns for the parents in recent times. Carrying bags as heavy as 7-8 kgs daily is nothing but cruelty which not only effects their spine but also leaves them totally exhausted by the end of the day.

The Department of Public Instruction of Karnataka, in January this year, had decided to implement no-bag day to ease the load on students from the 2018-19 academic year. The Block Education Officers have also issued directions to all the schools in this regard.

But barring Shivamogga, no other district in the state seems to have implemented this. In Shivamogga, the students from class 1 to 10 would be attending schools without bags every Saturday starting August 11.

On Saturdays, the schools in Shivamogga would be encouraging the students to take part in host of extra curricular activities such as classical dance, aerobics, yoga, martial arts and sessions on theatre among others.

Furthermore, to regulate the weight of the school bags on normal days, the Department of Public Instruction is looking at fixing the total weight of the bag within 10-15% of the body weight as per recommendations made by doctors.

Apart from relieving the students from the burden of carrying heavy bags, the aim of the entire exercise is also to ensure that learning does not remain textbook-centered.

According to a survey by the Department of State Educational Research and Training, in association with the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bangalore, the highest burden of school bags was in unaided schools. The average weight of the bag from classes 1 to 10 was 5.6 kg. The heaviest bag of 8.3 kg was carried by a Kendriya Vidyalaya class 12 student. The survey also stated that notebooks constituted the maximum weight, reported the Hindu.