Weight of school bags: CWC for implementation of HRD guidelines

Vijayawada: Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Krishna district has requested the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh to give directives for the implementation of the guidelines prescribed by the Human Resources Department, Central government imposing restrictions on the weight of the schools bags of the school children.

Chairman of the Krishna district Child Welfare Committee BV S Kumar sent a letter to the CS on Thursday requesting the latter to issue orders to put restrictions on the weight of the school bags.

In November 2018, the HRD, Central government, issued orders framing guidelines on the weight of the school bags as children were suffering from orthopaedic and spinal problems for carrying heavy load of school bags.

Since, the orders were issued in the middle of the academic year, i.e. November, 2018, the schools ignored the orders and children are facing the problems with overload of school bags. Now, this is the holiday time and schools will be reopened in June, 2019. So, the school managements can plan for implementation of HRD guidelines.

CWC Krishna district chairman B V S Kumar requested the Chief Secretary to issue orders enabling the administration to implement guidelines issued by HRD, Union government from the forthcoming academic year.

The HRD department framed the following guidelines on the school bags. The weight of the school bag for classes of 1 and 2 should not exceed 1.5 kg. The weight of the school bag for 3-5 classes should be 2-3 kgs. The weight of the school bag for classes 6-7 should not be more than 4 kg.

While the weight of the bag for classes 8-9 should not exceed 4.5 kg and finally the weight of the school bag for 10th class students should not be above 5 kg.

BVS Kumar said the school managements could not implement the orders last year because orders were issued in the middle of the academic year. He reminded that the children are facing spinal and orthopedic problems for carrying heavy load of books on their shoulders and felt it should be checked.