No More Back-Breaking Weight of School Bags

Indian education is shifting paradigms and realign education with their course curriculums. With steady digital support through the internet where students and teachers are now adapting new methods of learning by emerging technology, the learning process is becoming fun.

On 24th November 2020, the Ministry of Education issued the New School Bag policy 2020, to withdraw homework up to second-grade students and stated that a student's bag should not be heavier than 2 Kilograms. In July New National Education Policy released its guidelines and remodelled their guidelines for homework for young children so that a child could concentrate better on their life skills activities.

The research found that schoolbags of children are either heavier or equivalent to their own weights. The policy was based on multiple surveys and studies that were conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training that was extensively used by the latest policy document. Considering that the average weight of a child is between 15 to 23 kilograms, the weight of their school bags should be not be more than 10 per cent of their weight.

On the issue of homework, students and teachers are always managing deadlines allotted for the fulfilment of assignments or the given tasks. For young children up to 2nd standard, it becomes necessary for a parent to make their child sit for an hour or more to assist their child to complete their homework on time. The plight of a primary student going to a school or attending online classes for consecutive hours then again sitting in the evening and completing their necessary projects for the next day is unthinkable. In addition, parents are deprived of the opportunity to spend quality time with their child in their golden childhood age. Considering the issues and the related drawbacks, the Ministry of Education has taken a necessary step that was a need of the hour, especially since technology is impacting our lives in a major way.

The new Education Policy also focuses on the homework time for students of other grades. The policy states that two-hour homework will be given to all the students who are in their late elementary education and the secondary education period. By keeping focus on the total time spent for homework, the type of homework is being given to the children by the school and the conceptual syllabus provided in the textbooks of various subjects will be revised from 6th standard onwards.

The new policy is a very exciting new for school students and announces the  arrival of the modern education system into Indian academics!

By: Kanika Vij

Content: https://theprint.in/india/education/govt-suggests-no-homework-upto-class-2-school-bag-should-weigh-10-of-body-weight/562776/#:~:text=New%20Delhi%3A%20Children%20upto%20Class, by%20the%20Ministry%20of%20Education