Heavy school bags

Education Department has failed in ensuring that schools in the State abide by the guidelines of the Ministry of Human Resource Development with regards to weight of school bags. School going children are facing major inconveniences as they are compelled to carry heavy school bags, far inappropriate to their bodyweight. In our state, students are compelled to carry heavy school bags filled with additional books and notebooks while rest of the world is striving to educate students in a simpler and straightforward manner to enable them to pace in this competitive world. Meanwhile, Education S-Director, Th. Kirankumar stated that schools in our state have failed to abide by the guidelines provided by the MHRD on October 5th last year which specifically instructed not to give home work to students of class 1 & 2 and not to exceed weights of school bags for young students beyond 1.5 kg. Some Parents and Guardians opined that it is the prime responsibility of the Education Department to monitor all schools in the state including private schools but their lack of adequate influence and failure to abide by the guidelines of the Ministry have burdened school going children with heavy loads of school bags. Many students expressed unhappiness at the heavy weight of their school bags. Various students organisations have even denounced such unwanted loads on them. Excessive weights of school bags adversely affect the physical conditions of children and can cause severe long term health conditions or even fatal injuries. Now the critical question remains, who will take responsibility for such ill effects on our children- the Schools or the Education Department?