NEW DELHI: On noticing that the school children are often burdened with heavy bags, CBSE has made certain recommendations to the management and the heads of the schools in the country so that the students have lighter bags to carry with them, thereby encouraging them to enjoy the lessons rather than carrying the heavy stuff.
It has requested the teachers to discourage the senior students from getting the reference materials and books to their schools. The schools are advised to have enough of these reference books in the library itself so that the students can access them whenever needed for reading and clearing of doubts. These need not be brought to the school by the students. As per the earlier recommendations, schools are supposed to keep the books of students upto class II. This still holds good for the schools. CBSE has also suggested that the earlier recommendations are strictly followed by the schools.
CBSE has in its notifications issued to the schools time and again, has instructed the management and the heads of the schools to ensure that the students bring books strictly as per the time table given to them. This notification is for the students belonging to class III onwards.
CBSE has set certain guidelines that the schools need to follow with respect to the time table. The time table should be a balanced one with schedules for sports and co-curricular activities daily. This balance needs to be maintained throughout the year. This certainly keeps the bags light.
Further the school curriculum should also be supporting more of activity based; ICT supported learning system in all the main subjects for all classes. The schools have also been asked to block schedule some of the main subjects in the time table so that the students need not carry many books to the school.
CBSE has also noticed that many a times the schools prescribe textbooks beyond the norms especially in the primary and the upper primary classes. The schools take up the extra books to compete amongst themselves for providing better education and for extracting more money and fees from the parents. However, CBSE has now asked the schools to restrict the number of textbooks to those as prescribed by NCERT. It has also insisted that the books should not be covered with non-biodegradable plastic sheets.
Among other suggestion is to keep the home assignments to the minimum. Academic coordinators or supervisors of the schools have been given the additional responsibilities to see to it that the children are not overburdened with the home works in any subject.
Schools also should be having the book racks and similar other racks with locking facilities in all the classrooms. These would store the reference books, sports equipments, uniforms, etc.
CBSE has also suggested that the school heads carry out regular counseling of parents as well as the teachers about the issues related to carrying heavy bags by children. Promotion of well designed backpacks, good posture and other such developmental issues should also be discussed in the counseling.