(a) whether the Government has formulated any guidelines seeking to prescribe weight limits of school bags;
(b) if so, the details thereof including the time by which these guidelines will be implemented;
(c) whether the Government proposes to implement these guidelines uniformly for all the students
in the country;
(d) if so, the details thereof; and
(e) the extent to which these measures are likely to help the students?
MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (DR. D. PURANDESWARI)
(a) to (d) Government of India had constituted a National Advisory Committee in 1993 to advise on
the ways and means to reduce the academic burden on school students. The Committee had observed,
inter-alia, that there was no justification for torturing the young children by compelling them
to carry heavy bags of books everyday to schools. The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 reiterates
the need to reduce curricular burden. Central Board of Secondary Education has issued instruction to
its affiliated schools on the following:
(i) No school bags for the children of Classes I and II.
(ii) No over-prescription of textbooks for all classes and keeping the number of textbooks limited.
(iii) Establishment of class libraries to provide textbooks to those who happen to be without
textbooks on any particular day.
(iv) Planning a judicious time table to avoid unnecessary loading of school bags on any day.
Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) has issued instruction to all its schools to ensure that the weight
of books and notebooks including school bag should not be more than 2 kg for classes I and II, 3 kg for
classes III and IV, 4 kg for classes V to VII and 6 kg for classes VIII to XII.
As far as schools within the purview of the State Governments are concerned, it is for the State
Governments to issue appropriate guidelines.
(e) These measures will help reducing physical burden on school children.