Overweight school bags: No respite for kids as govt ignores panel recommendations
Srinagar: Despite the passage of over two years, the school education department has shelved the MHRD guidelines for reducing the heavy weight of school bags carried by children.
The two committees constituted by the state government have submitted their report to the education department over a year ago but the implementation of the recommendations has not seen the light of the day.
“The report has not been examined by the department yet due to which the implementation of the recommendation has got delayed. The report is gathering dust in the official corridors while as private schools continue to force students to carry heavy school bags on their tender shoulders,” said an official.
“No instructions have been issued from the government regarding the heavy weight of school bags. So we can’t force private schools to change their time table or pattern of books without any instruction from the government,” the official added.
He said the report is still with the government but once the government takes a call, same will be conveyed to the management of private schools.
It may be recalled that the during the PDP led coalition government, a four member committee was constituted in last week of August last year, which was tasked to suggest “possible measures” to help reduce weight of school bags of school-going children.
The committee was headed by chairman Board of School Education (BSOE) Veena Pandita while as other members of the committee included former head of the department of sociology department A G Madhosh, two retired Principals- Nusrat Andrabi and Abdul Jabbar.
The report was submitted by the committee in October last year for its implementation but the department shelved the issue for unknown reasons.
The government in October last year had claimed that the recommendations put forth by the committee will be examined and implemented from next academic session which commended from November 14.
Notably, later on another team of the same members was constituted to submit the recommendations to the government with some modification in the previous report.
“The second report was also submitted but the implementation has been put on the back burner,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Secretary School Education department Sarita Chauhan said the department is processing the recommendations.
“The report will be examined and guidelines will be issued very soon,” she said.
KV Correspondent
