Ambala: School bag policy 2020 has been implemented in Haryana schools in which schools will be held responsible if water bottles and heavy bags containing books are found hanging around children’s necks. Information reveals, if the school bags weight limit has been set in 5 categories, which is 1.5 kg for class 1 and class 2, and 5 kg for class 10 only. Moreover, there cannot be any pressure by the school management applicable for both private as well as government schools, to buy books and uniforms from a particular shop. Such rules have been made compulsory and if the school operators violate the rules in any way, then the school will be directly responsible for violating directions if a water bottle is found hanging from the neck of the students or the weight of the school bag is found to be more than five kilogram.
Information reveals that the education department has issued a letter to all DEOs and DEEOs across the state on April 5 and ordered them to follow the rules strictly. Not only this, there has been talk about uniforms as well, in which if any school puts pressure on students to buy uniforms from a particular shop, then that too will be considered a violation of government rules. If any school is found doing this, then strict action will be taken. For this, the District Education Officer has been ordered to keep a special watch.
According to information, this is how the weight of school bags will be according to the different classes, such as Class 1 to 2: Weight of school bag should not exceed 1.5 kg, Class 3rd to 5th: Weight of school bag should be between 2 to 3 kg, Class VI to VII: Weight of school bag should be up to 4 kg, Class VIII to IX: Weight of school bag should be up to 4.5 kg and for Class 10th: Weight of the school bag should not exceed 5 kg. It is often seen that students’ school bags carry more weight than required and especially during summers, cold water bottles are found hanging around their necks. In such a situation, both parents and children face a lot of problems. Sources reveal, the main reason for this is the lack of basic facilities in schools or private books found inside the bags. Due to which the weight of the bags was also very high. According to the health department, due to this students also fall prey to many types of diseases and complaints of poor eyesight or frequent headache are the most common. Sources reveal, nearly 30 percent of children are facing back pain and shoulder related problems.
Now after five years, the 2020 school bag policy has been implemented and the education department has issued orders across the state to strictly follow this act. According to information, most private schools are flouting the rules, children have to carry heavy bags; parents should also know the rules related to school bags. As usually seen, the rules of the School Bag Policy 2020 are being violated in the state due to which children have to carry heavy bags, as such the state education department has fixed the weight of the bag for students from class 1 to 10 and as seen private schools are ignoring the rules. Recently, the state education department has taken strict action against large numbers of private schools functioning illegally without having permission from the government.
When I talked to Dr S.K. Sadiq, Director of Ambala’s famous Philadelphia Mission Hospital Ambala City, was of opinion, if the burden of school bags remains on the foundation of the future like this, then the day is not far when most of the children will start facing problems related to back pain and shoulders. According to Dr. Sadiq, if this continues, then all these problems are sure to occur, even now many children come to us with problems related to back pain and shoulders and in such a situation, we tell them the methods of prevention.
