Merciless weight of schoolbags

At this early stage of life all children like to play, not become studious like the more senior counterparts

In a perfectly good move, the High Court recently directed the government to stop carrying heavy schoolbags by primary school children. The court has fixed weight of the bag: it should not exceed 10 per cent of the boy’s or girl’s body weight. But the question that arises now: how the government would enforce this rule. The court has banned giving corporal punishment to students several years ago, yet this practice continues unabated all over the country. When some cases of this kind of cruel treatment are reported, the relevant authorities are known to have taken measures.  
However, barring the government primary schools, all schools in the country prescribe additional books for the children. There are many guardians who like their children to read many books so that they become ‘good’ students right from the beginning of primary classes, though education experts believe the contrary. They think a child’s mental ability grows most when they learn through playing. Moreover, at this early stage of life all children like to play, not become studious like the more senior counterparts.
Their natural tendency is not to become a bookish one. Yet school authorities give a student of Class I or II, for example, many books in addition to three books freely provided by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). The total weight of these books of Class I or II would separately not be more than half a kg and the weight of six books of Classes III, IV and V each would not weigh more than 1.5 kg. 
But a student of these classes usually carries a weight far greater than these measures. The extra books not only create mental pressure to the student, carrying of these books is also physically painful for them. This becomes very labourious when these tiny tots climb upstairs to go to the class. Not surprisingly, guardians are often seen carrying the bags of their children. Now as some guardians like their children to become bookish, they would allow them to carry weights more than the measure the court has fixed. 
Though difficult to enforce, the rule itself will surely have some deterrent effect on the practice.  For enforcing the rule, better it would be to force the school authorities, private or public alike, to abide by it because guardians liking or disliking here is irrelevant.  

 

Merciless weight of schoolbags

At this early stage of life all children like to play, not become studious like the more senior counterparts

In a perfectly good move, the High Court recently directed the government to stop carrying heavy schoolbags by primary school children. The court has fixed weight of the bag: it should not exceed 10 per cent of the boys or girls body weight. But the question that arises now: how the government would enforce this rule. The court has banned giving corporal punishment to students several years ago, yet this practice continues unabated all over the country. When some cases of this kind of cruel treatment are reported, the relevant authorities are known to have taken measures. However, barring the government primary schools, all schools in the country prescribe additional books for the children. There are many guardians who like their children to read many books so that they become good students right from the beginning of primary classes, though education experts believe the contrary. They think a childs mental ability grows most when they learn through playing. Moreover, at this early stage of life all children like to play, not become studious like the more senior counterparts. Their natural tendency is not to become a bookish one. Yet school authorities give a student of Class I or II, for example, many books in addition to three books freely provided by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). The total weight of these books of Class I or II would separately not be more than half a kg and the weight of six books of Classes III, IV and V each would not weigh more than 1.5 kg. But a student of these classes usually carries a weight far greater than these measures. The extra books not only create mental pressure to the student, carrying of these books is also physically painful for them. This becomes very labourious when these tiny tots climb upstairs to go to the class. Not surprisingly, guardians are often seen carrying the bags of their children. Now as some guardians like their children to become bookish, they would allow them to carry weights more than the measure the court has fixed. Though difficult to enforce, the rule itself will surely have some deterrent effect on the practice. For enforcing the rule, better it would be to force the school authorities, private or public alike, to abide by it because guardians liking or disliking here is irrelevant.