School Bags Weigh too much

A few days back, there was interesting and eye-opening news about children and school bags. The authorities of the Kendriya Vidalaya chain of schools have ordered the principals of the schools to check the weight of the school bags. They have even threatened to take extreme steps against those principals who do not abide by this new instruction issued on them.

It’s a known fact to every parent, the amount of pressure kids have to handle in school. There is tremendous competition of performing up to the mark in school examinations. All the more there is the burden of the school bags, which has a good weight because of the fat text books and exercise copies that children have to carry to school everyday.

Its nice to see at least some school authorities have thought out of the box, and have tried to bring out some solution to the increasing weight of bags in educational institutions. The central government-run KVS (Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan) have over 1000 schools under them.

Under the new norms, these central school principals must ensure that the total weight of textbooks and notebooks does not exceed 2 kg, including the bag, for students of classes I and II. The admissible weight limit is 3 kg for students of classes III and IV, 4 kg for classes V to VII and 6 kg for higher classes.

Parents have long complained about the excessive weight of school bags that leave children bowed down to the ground. We cannot deny the fact that children of today hardly get any time to play. They are seen lost in doing homework, preparing ‘projects’ for various subjects and studying hard to get good marks in the examinations. Thus, they barely get time even to eat and sleep properly.

In the age of computers, and increased rat-race among people to make a good career and land on a fine job, a kid’s innocence seem to disappear amidst strict everyday routine of studies, tests and winning prizes or performance awards in schools.