Schools ‘fall in line’, lighter bags become a norm

According to the department, only a few schools from the state have sent reports on the matter till now and the deadline is likely to be missed and extended. But, going against the trend, several schools seem to have taken prompt action to reduce the weight of school bags and are ready for inspection rounds.

S M Choksey School from the Cantonment area, where the weight of the bags was found to have exceeded the limit, held several PTA meetings, issuing notices to the parents to meet the limit permissible.

Neeta Lodhi, principal of the school, said, “The weight of the bags was in excess because students were carrying tuition notebooks as well. After inspection, we’ve held several PTA meetings and carried out regular weight checks in random classes.

The time-table has also been adjusted, so that students don’t have to carry the whole bag. They have three to four regular academic periods followed by PT or Arts class, where textbooks and notebooks aren’t required. We’ve also informed the parents to check if their child is following the time-table properly.”

At Vikhe-Patil Memorial School, the students have been asked to keep their books in lockers. “We’ve already taken the initiative to keep the textbooks and notebooks of the children above standard V in lockers. For those below Std V, we have minimised the use of notebooks and keep the textbooks in the class itself. The homework is given once a week to reduce the weight of notebooks,” said Nandini Charles, principal of the school.

Vinita Khaladkar, principal of City International School at Wanowrie, said the school is implementing creative techniques to reduce the weight of the bags. “We asked students to share textbooks. If class partners decide to divide the list of subjects among themselves, it reduces the weight drastically.

Fifth standard onwards, the students become strong enough to carry their bag, but if some student has spinal problems or backache, we even have a policy where the school helpers lift the student’s bag,” Khaladkar said.

Leena Chaudhari, the principal of Symbiosis School, talked about how beneficial the exercise is . “We go with a weighing scale and randomly check the weight of the bags. When we find the weight is in excess, we send a notification to the parents.

Besides this, we also ask students to bring plastic tiffins and bottles, in place of the steel ones.” The Kendriya Vidyalayas in the city, according to one of its former principals N D Joshi, who headed Ganeshkhind KV before retiring in May this year, have been proactive since 2009 when it comes to bag weight.

“We’ve been following the RTE suggestions, long before they became an issue. In our schools, the weights of the bags are pre-fixed for all standards. For example, our first and second standard students are not allowed to carry a bag that weighs more than 1.5 kg,” Joshi said.

Sunita Phadke, principal of Vidyanchal School, Baner, said their school has already reduced the weight of bags. “Much before the government directives came in, our schools started following the norm,” she said. Agnes Paul, principal of S V S High School, Khadki, said,”We have reduced the weight of schoolbags.

Our students do not bring books that are not required for that particular day.” A principal of a school in Pimpri-Chinchwad said their school teachers monitor the weight of bags on a daily basis which prevents children from carrying unnecessary books.