Here’s a piece of news that will make you wish you had a time machine.
The Union HRD ministry has issued a set of directives to all States and Union Territories prohibiting all schools from assigning homework to students of classes 1 and 2 while prescribing weight limits for the schoolbags of the students, PTI reported.
Additionally, the ministry has said that schools can not prescribe any other subject except Language and Mathematics for class 1 and 2 students and Language, Mathematics, and EVS for class 3 to 5 students.
Although the ministry has not laid out specific norms for the schools, it has asked the states to quickly come up with those of their own, or follow the ones already put in place by Telangana or Maharashtra models.
According to the Telangana model, Weight of school bag of classes 1 and 2 students shall not exceed 1.5 Kg. The allowed weight of school bags for classes 3 to 5 students is 2-3 Kg, for classes 6 to 7 students is 4 Kg, for classes 8 to 9 students is 4.5 Kg, and for class 10 students is 5 Kg. Schools are also not allowed to prescribe any additional books, and extra materials to the students.
Maharashtra’s policy is that the weight of a bag should not exceed 10% of a student’s weight.
The HRD’s directive comes in the backdrop of Madras High Court’s May order to the central government asking it to regulate the teaching of subjects and weight of school bags.
Following the court order, the ministry formed a panel comprising experts from CBSE, NCERT, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and other bodies to formulate a draft policy in this regard, the officials said.
The weight of school bags as well as the amount of homework given to students has been a matter of debate for quite some time now. Experts have often how heavy bags and too much homework causes mental and physical strain to a child.
Copyright © 2024 IE Online Media Services Private Ltd. All Rights Reserved.