Bag weight: Govt to hold surprise checks in schools

Following up on its recent order to reduce the weight of the children’s school bags, the Education Department has decided to conduct surprise checks in all schools.

With the classes for the 2019-20 academic year resuming a week ago, the Department of Primary an Secondary education has decided to send its officials to schools, who will check the bag weight by using electronic scale and weighing machines.

Sources in the education department told DH that the move was to ensure that all schools fall in line with the state government’s recent order.

S R Umashankar, Principal Secretary to Education Department said told DH that every school should comply with the order and the team of officials will inspect schools only to check compliance.

According to him, the team will make surprise checks on schools across the state.

Umashankar said that officials at the block level accompanied with experts will be assigned the job of conducting inspections.

“In case the schools are found violating the government order, the affiliation of such schools would be at risk. The state government has fixed the weight of the bags based on the expert committee’s report and in the interest of health of the children,” Umashankar explained.

The state government, in first week of May, passed an order stating that the weight of children’s school bags shall not be more than 10 per cent of the student’s body weight.

An independent study by the department revealed that school bags of kids in private unaided schools weighed on an average of 5.6 kgs while that of the government school children weighed 3.7 kgs in Bengaluru. In total, the overall weight of the bags, during the study, ranged from 1.8 kg to 8.3 kg.

A 10th standard student of Kendriya Vidyalaya was found carrying a school bag with a weight of 8.3 kg. However, the private schools’ management appears to have ignored the government’s order on the weight of the school bags.

D Shashi Kumar, General Secretary, Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka said that the order of the government on the weight of school bag was unscientific and the association had filed an objection to it.