Lok Sabha Question No. 1317 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-02-11
Subject: Weight of School Bags
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: POONAMBEN HEMATBHAI MAADAM

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1317 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11 TH  FEBRUARY, 2019

## Weight of School Bags

## 1317. SHRIMATI POONAMBEN MAADAM:

## Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  recently  instructed  all  States  and  Union  Territories  to formulate guidelines to regulate or moderate the teaching of subjects and weight limit of school bag;
- (b) if so, the details thereof with regard to the prescribed guidelines along with the weight limit of school bags;
- (c) whether any mechanism to monitor that schools are implementing the said guidelines; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (DR. SATYA PAL SINGH)

(a) to (d): The  Right  of  Children  to  Free  and  Compulsory  Education  (RTE)  Act,  2009 provides the right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school to the children of the age of 6 to 14 years till the completion of elementary education (upto 8 th class).   Section 29 (1) of the RTE Act, 2009 states that the curriculum and the evaluation procedure for elementary education  shall  be  laid  down  by  an  academic  authority  to  be  specified  by  the  appropriate Government,  by  notification.  The  Central  Government  is  the  appropriate  Government  only  in relation  to  a  school  established,  owned  and  controlled  by  the  Central  Government,  or  the administrator of the Union Territory, having no legislature.  In other cases, State Governments and UT Governments are the appropriate Governments, in relation to a school established within the territory of a State or a UT having legislature, respectively.

As  per  the  National  Curriculum  Framework  (NCF)-2005  brought  out  by  NCERT,  the concept of time on task is essential reckoner for taking stock of the total time that the children spent actively on learning. This would include time spent on listening, reading, writing, doing activities  and  discussing  etc.  particularly  in  multi  grade  classes,  planning  and  designing  of learning activities for children need to ensure that children's time on task is maximized. Total study time that is expected from students in both face to face and self study or homework needs to  be  accounted  for  while  planning  the  syllabus  for  course  of  study  for  students,  especially  as they are going to higher grade.

The NCF, 2005 further recommends all schools not to have any homework in Classes I and II. It further recommends two hours homework per week from Class III. For middle schools, the homework prescribed is one hour a day (about five to six hours a week). For secondary and higher secondary classes, two hours of homework a day (about ten to twelve hours a week) is prescribed.

The (NCF)-2005 also addresses the issue related to curriculum load keeping in view the Yash Pal Committee Report (1993) titled 'Learning Without Burden'. NCF states that 'Heavy School Bags' is the common source of physical discomfort due to heavy encyclopedic types of information  loaded  textbooks.  To  overcome  this  problem,  NCF  emphasizes  upon  shifting learning  away  from  rote  methods,  connecting  knowledge  to  life  outside  school,  enriching  the curriculum to provide for overall  development of  children  rather  than  remain  textbook  centric and making examination more flexible and integrated to classroom life.

The NCERT has taken following initiatives in this context:

- (i) New syllabi and textbooks reflect  the  NCF  2005  perspective  on  curriculum  load and are interactive and based on child centered pedagogy. The NCERT textbooks and other teaching learning materials are available online on its website www.ncert.nic.in.
- (ii) NCERT  has  not  developed  any  textbook  for  early  childhood  education  (LKG, UKG).
- (iii) NCERT recommends only two books (language and mathematics) for Classes I and II and three books (language, EVS and mathematics) for Classes III to V.
- (iv) NCF 2005 suggests that autonomy should be given to the schools to develop their own flexible  time  tables  so  that  school  can  teach  two  or  three  subject  each  day giving students more time to do activities and develop deeper understanding of the concept.  The  NCERT  addresses  this  issue  incapacity  building  programme  for teacher and school heads.
- (v) e-Pathshala platform which contains e-resource for students from Classes I to XII.

Central  Board  of  Secondary  Education  (CBSE)  has  advised  schools  to  ensure  that  no homework is given to students till class II vide their circular dated 13 th August, 2018. Circulars have been issued by the CBSE specifying the number of textbooks to be prescribed in Classes IVIII as per NCERT curriculum to reduce the weight of school bag.

However,  it  has  come  to  notice  that  many  schools,  especially  private  schools  are  not following the  above  prescriptions  and  recommend  extra  books  and  homework  for  children.  In view of this, the Central Government has issued a communication dated 05/10/2018 to all States and UTs, in compliance to the order of the Hon'ble High Court of Judicature at Madras dated 29/05/2018 in W.P. 25680 of 2017- M. Purushothaman Vs Union of India and Others, in this matter.        Further,  an  expert  group  has  been  constituted  to  formulate  a  policy  on  'children's school bags' at the National level.

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