The Human Resource Development Ministry has written to all states to fix the weight of the school bag according to a student’s class — a move that is in line with a Madras High Court order aimed at easing the burden on young schoolchildren who are forced to carry heavy school bags.
The letter by the ministry also asks schools not to assign any homework to students in classes 1 and 2.
Earlier this year, the Madras High Court had said, “The children are neither weightlifters nor schoolbags are loaded containers. Joy, happiness, enthusiasm, trolling, rolling, kicking, running, fighting, playing with other children are natural qualities of the children.”
The court’s observation came while passing an interim order in May on a petition seeking direction to the schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education to purchase only NCERT books.
Justice N. Kirubakaran had also directed the Centre to instruct state governments not to prescribe any other subjects except language and mathematics for classes 1 and 2 and language, EVS and mathematics for classes 3 and 4, as prescribed by the NCERT.
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