School students relieved of bag burden

Providing a major relief to students from carrying heavy loads of books to school, the Telangana government on Tuesday issued guidelines on the weight of schoolbags, which needs to be implemented from the current academic year. 

The weight of the school bags of students of first and second classes should not be more than 1.5 kilos, including the textbooks and notebooks and for classes 3 to 5 it should be about 2 to 3 kilos. 

Similarly, for seventh and eighth class it should not be more than 4 kilos, for ninth 4.5 kilos and for tenth class students the maximum weight



should not be more than 5 kilos.

In the absence of guidelines so far, the children were carrying bags of about 6 to 12 kilos at primary level and 12 to 17 kilos at high school level resulting in adverse effect on their physical posture and faced the possibility of damage to their vertebral column and knees. 

The consequences could be much serious if they have to carry this heavy load in multi-storied school buildings.The new guideline order was given on the basis of survey conducted in a few districts by the School Education Department.