Bag of burden...

Unending woe

No doubt, the field of education has witnessed a sea change thanks to the initiative of the State and Union governments. Several new programmes have been implemented by the governments to impart education each and every kid in the country. Thousands of crores are being spent especially on the primary education by the Centre to ensure that all the kids get education.

The Centre’s new slogan ‘Right to Education’ shows its commitment of making the children access to education. In the process, it has failed to address the serious problem of school bags. The problem of school bags may not be a big problem as far government schools are concerned. But it is definitely a thing of worry when it comes to private schools.

Of late, the private schools have outnumbered government schools in almost all the cities and Mysore is not an exception. It is also wish of every parent that their ward should go to  private schools.

Unfortunately, in the name of good education they are forcing the schoolchildren to become porters. Each kid is made to carry at least three to four kg load of books on their back and walk up to the school.

For them, carrying the school bags is a big punishment and they become exhausted and lose interest before reaching their schools. On an average, there will be six to seven periods. For each subject, they have to carry textbooks, notebooks, rough books, geometry box and lunch box. The load would be more during weekly or monthly tests as they have to separate books during that time. Can the tender spinal chord withstand that much of weight is a big question. The problem of heavy school bags is not only seen among the kids of middle and high schools but even in primary level.  The weight of the school bags increase as the students enters the higher level. Even the subject teachers too insist that the students should bring textbook, notebook and rough book daily.

Suppose, there are six subjects, the students have to carry at least 16 to 18 books. The question is whether the modern day education is making the children to face physical problems in the later stages. The children complain of backache soon after coming back from the schools and lose interest in studies. The present generation totally lack physical exercise since they are pre-occupied with their academics. Perhaps, Saturday is the only day for these kids to stretch their hands and legs that too for one hour.

Although, some schools have provided the shelves for the students to keep textbooks and notebooks still it has failed to solve this problem. The students have to carry home the books to do homework. So the purpose of providing them the shelves has not been solved. The burden could be reduced only if the teachers make the students to do the homework in the school itself.

Problems

An orthopedician told City Herald that carrying heavy school bags would pose problems in the later stages. First of all the schools should minimise the weight of school bags as far as possible in the interest of the kids. Secondly, any homework should be completed in order to avoid the schoolchildren from carrying the heavy school bags.