Lighter school bags from coming academic session

  • | Wednesday | 27th February, 2019

While the weight of bags for classes III to V should not exceed 4 kg, that of classes VI and VII should not exceed 4.5 kg. The weight for classes VIII to X should not go beyond 5 kg.The ministry has directed to ensure that schools do not assign any homework to students in classes I and II and prescribe anything other than NCERT text books across classes.The PIL had contended that children were being overburdened with heavy school bags, resulting in various health problems due to lack of proper measures taken by school authorities, especially English-medium schools, while preparing syllabi. CUTTACK: The state government will implement the notification issued by the Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) to tackle the problem of heavy school bags carried by young children from the forthcoming academic session.On October 5, 2018, the MHRD had instructed all states and Union Territories to formulate guidelines to regulate teaching of subjects and the weight of school bags children carry in accordance with the instructions issued by the Centre.The state government on Monday informed the Orissa high court about its action plan on the MHRD notification during the PIL hearing on the issue of health implications of students carrying heavy school bags. A high court lawyer, Kanhayalal Sharma, had filed the PIL seeking intervention to implement the MHRD guidelines in the state.Acting on it, the court on February 4 had directed the state counsel to take instruction from the school and mass education department on the status of implementation of the MHRD notification.When the case came up on Monday, school and mass education department counsel Diptiranjan Mohapatra made an oral submission, informing the court that steps have been taken to regulate the weight of school bags in accordance with the MHRD guidelines and the same will be implemented from the forthcoming academic session.The division bench of chief justice K S Jhaveri and justice K R Mohapatra took note of it and directed to submit the status of implementation of the MHRD instructions in the form of an affidavit by March 6.The bench has posted the matter to March 11 for hearing along with the affidavit of the school and mass education department.According to the norms prescribed in the MHRD circular, the weight of school bags for classes I and II should not exceed 1.5 kg.

CUTTACK: The state government will implement the notification issued by the Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) to tackle the problem of heavy school bags carried by young children from the forthcoming academic session.On October 5, 2018, the MHRD had instructed all states and Union Territories to formulate guidelines to regulate teaching of subjects and the weight of school bags children carry in accordance with the instructions issued by the Centre.The state government on Monday informed the Orissa high court about its action plan on the MHRD notification during the PIL hearing on the issue of health implications of students carrying heavy school bags. A high court lawyer, Kanhayalal Sharma, had filed the PIL seeking intervention to implement the MHRD guidelines in the state.Acting on it, the court on February 4 had directed the state counsel to take instruction from the school and mass education department on the status of implementation of the MHRD notification.When the case came up on Monday, school and mass education department counsel Diptiranjan Mohapatra made an oral submission, informing the court that steps have been taken to regulate the weight of school bags in accordance with the MHRD guidelines and the same will be implemented from the forthcoming academic session.The division bench of chief justice K S Jhaveri and justice K R Mohapatra took note of it and directed to submit the status of implementation of the MHRD instructions in the form of an affidavit by March 6.The bench has posted the matter to March 11 for hearing along with the affidavit of the school and mass education department.According to the norms prescribed in the MHRD circular, the weight of school bags for classes I and II should not exceed 1.5 kg. While the weight of bags for classes III to V should not exceed 4 kg, that of classes VI and VII should not exceed 4.5 kg. The weight for classes VIII to X should not go beyond 5 kg.The ministry has directed to ensure that schools do not assign any homework to students in classes I and II and prescribe anything other than NCERT text books across classes.The PIL had contended that children were being overburdened with heavy school bags, resulting in various health problems due to lack of proper measures taken by school authorities, especially English-medium schools, while preparing syllabi.

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