The Government of Madhya Pradesh has announced that it would observe “bag-less school” once a week from the upcoming academic year onwards. This initiative would be applicable to students of Classes I to XI starting 2024-25.
This decision, which applies to all government and private schools in the state, has been taken in order to reduce the stress of the students, a report by ANI says. In the notice announcing this, the state government also specified the weights of the students’ school bags according to their classes.
As per the notice, the maximum weight of the school bag for students of Classes I and II would be between 1.6 and 2.2 kilos. Similarly, students of Classes III to V were specified a weight range of 1.6 to 2.2 kilos, and the bags of students of Classes VI and VII should weigh from two to three kilos. As for students of Class VIII, their weight range is 2.5 to 4 kilos, and 2.5 to 4.5 kilos was specified as the weight of the bags of Classes IX and X students.
In addition, the weight of school bags for students of Classes XI and XII would be decided by the school management committee according to the stream of the students, the notice says.
Meanwhile, School Education Minister for the state Uday Pratap Singh told ANI, "To avoid stress on children due to the burden of their bags, we have categorised the weight of bags of students according to their class. The younger students' bag weight will be up to 2.2 kg and the older students' bag weight will be 4.5 kg. We have also decided to have ‘Bagless school’ once a week."
"Bagless school means that children should enjoy that day, play games, explore sports activities, cultural programmes, music, and so on. The students should be kept engaged in such a way that school does not seem like a matter of stress to them, school should be a matter of joy for them. We have taken this initiative in this direction to release the stress of the students," the minister added.
Schools in the state have been issued to follow the school bag policy strictly from the new academic session, that is, the 2024-25 session.
