Govt puts a cap on weight of school bags: Here is what it should be

ew Delhi, Nov 26: The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has asked all states and union territories to formulate guidelines to regulate the teaching of subjects and weight of school bags.

"HRD ministry instructs all states and union territories to formulate guidelines to regulate the teaching of subjects and weight of school bags according to Indian Govt instructions," ANI quoted HRD ministry statement as saying.

The government had earlier this year said that it was in favour of reducing the weight of school bags

and had initiated a pilot project in 25 Kendriya Vidyalayas to provide digital learning to children through tablets. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had then said while the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has recommended only two books (language and mathematics) for classes I and II and three books for classes III to V, it has also made available all their textbooks for free access through the web and mobile devices.

According to the norms, the weight of the bag for classes I and II should only be 1.5 kg and for classes VIII to X, it cannot exceed 5 kg.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been regularly issuing circulars asking schools to ensure that the weight of the bags are in check. In a circular issued in August, the CBSE provided a list of NCERT textbooks for each class and had said that schools could use the list to ensure that they don't prescribe additional books.