New Delhi: The Education Ministry, in its new policy on school bags, made suggestions such as provision for lockers, digital weighing of bags, and no homework for students up to Class II, among other recommendations, reported Hindustan Times.
Citing international agencies, the new policy suggests to “follow universally accepted ratio of weight for school bag as 10 per cent of the body weight of the student across Classes 1 to X.”
Asking schools to keep a digital weighing machine to monitor schoolbag weight, it also added that the schoolbags needed to be light, with proper compartments, with and “two padded and adjustable straps,” while barring the use of wheeled carriers.
Provisions for good quality and sufficient potable water, lockers, ensuring mid-day meals to be of “adequate and good quality”, adequate space for sports, and the printing of the weight of textbooks by publishers were some of the other suggestions in the policy.
The policy also talks at length about the acceptable amount of homework for different classes, recommending no homework for students until Class II, Classes III to V students having a maximum of two-hour homework, and only one hour for Classes VI to VIII.
There were also recommendations on the type of homework in the policy, with students of up to Class II being only encouraged to speak about light topics, Class III to V students being assigned homework exploring their daily routines and preferences, and Class VI to VIII students being given essays and articles on contemporary issues.
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