The Royal Education Council (REC) has suggested the schools to adopt several measures to ensure the students are not carrying heavy bags. Research has shown that carrying heavy school bags impacts the health of children adversely.
Doctors say it can cause neck and back pain, shoulder strain, and fatigue.
Concerned over this, the REC, in a letter sent to the Thromde and Dzongkhag Education offices across the country last month, suggested several ways in which the schools could work towards reducing the weight of school bags.
Holding classes for only certain subjects instead of all subjects in a day is one of the measures it recommended. The Director of the Royal Education Council, Kinga Drakpa, said the schools have also been suggested to work out a new home work policy aimed towards ensuring the students are not given home work for all subjects every day.
The third suggestion is to bring down the number of note books. “In some schools, students carry three notebooks for one subject. That’s not necessary,” said the REC Director.
Equipping classrooms with lockers and shelves is another suggestion made. Thick notebooks are also being discouraged.
Kinga Drakpa also said it would help if the schools could provide safe drinking water. “The students will not have to carry water bottles and this will reduce the weight of their bags.”
He added while it may not be practical, the school bags would become even lighter if the parents could reach their children’s lunch.
Carrying heavy schools bags is difficult particularly for school children in rural Bhutan. Most of them have to walk a long distance, an hour or more in some cases, to get to school.
“We face many problems, especially the lower class students,” said Sonam Yangzom, a student of Nangkor Central School. “It’s hard for them to walk with heavy bags,” she added.
Tashi Lhamo, another student of Nangkor Central School, shared it is tough when it rains. “Our books get soaked. Having a locker or shelves to keep our books would help.”
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