School bags to get lighter from next academic year in Telangana

Going to school will be less burdensome for students as their bags will get lighter by at least 25 per cent from the next academic year. In response to increasing concerns over the strain that growing children endure on their shoulders with heavy school bags, the School Education Department is bringing down the thickness of paper in textbooks to lighten the load.

From 90 Grams per Square Metre (GSM), the paper thickness of the textbooks will be reduced to 70 GMS — resulting in the lightening of the school bags between 25 per cent and 30 per cent, depending on the class. Preliminary estimates suggested that the Class X textbooks, which now weigh around 4.5 kg, will come down by one kg once the paper thickness is reduced.

Apart from alleviating the burden on children, the department will save big on



paper purchases as the raw paper procurement will come down from the present 11,000 tonnes to 8,000 tonnes. This will aid the department in saving Rs 30 to Rs 40 crore on the raw paper procurement. During the academic year 2023-24, Rs 150 crore was spent in providing free textbooks to students of the government and local body schools.

Around 2 crore textbooks will be provided to 24.66 lakh students of the government and local body schools under the free component in the next academic year.

An official said that the proposal, which awaits the State government approval, apart from cutting down school bag load and cost, is also an environment-friendly move. The move aligns with the contemporary debate on reducing the undue impact on the environment, by reducing the usage of tonnes of raw paper material.