The Telangana School Education Department’s No Bag Day initiative, launched in June 2023 to reduce academic stress, has largely failed to achieve its intended impact, with only a handful of schools continuing to observe it.

The programme mandated that every fourth Saturday be observed as a bag-less day for students from Classes 1 to 10. However, most government and private schools continue to hold regular classes, with students carrying heavy bags.

Teachers and educationists cite poor monitoring, lack of infrastructure, and syllabus completion pressures as key reasons for its limited adoption.

“Many private schools have stopped this practice as we were unable to complete the syllabus” said Yadagiri Shekhar Rao, adviser to TRSMA. In some private schools, the initiative was restricted to primary classes but has largely disappeared.

“No Bag Day was implemented only in primary sections from this academic year in our school. It was meant to ease the burden of regular studies, but it failed because schools did not take it seriously, especially private schools,” said Seema Rao, a teacher from Kukatpally.

Government schools have also neglected the initiative, citing practical difficulties. Ravinder, in-charge headmaster of a government high school in Nallakunta, said, “The Education department introduces several new programmes every year, but due to the short academic calendar we are unable to implement them properly. For No Bag Day, there was also no proper plan in place.”

[Article by Meghna Nath of The New Indian Express]