Thumbs up: Radzi said the ministry is committed to addressing the heavy schoolbag issue.
NEXT to his small frame, Muhamad Amirul Amin’s schoolbag looks humongous.
But this is no optical illusion; the eight-year-old is in fact lugging a gargantuan backpack as he struggles to make his way to class.“My bag is big and heavy because there are so many books to bring to school,” the Year Two pupil at SK Gombak Setia in Kuala Lumpur lamented.
Fortunately, the enormous schoolbag that Muhamad Amirul has been lugging around is now a thing of the past.
The Education Ministry, on Oct 5, rolled out the first phase of the school locker initiative for Year One and Two pupils.
Announced by Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin in March this year, the much-needed and long-awaited initiative is part of the ministry’s commitment to address the issue of heavy schoolbags among pupils in Malaysia.Radzi, during the recent locker handover ceremony at SK Gombak Setia, described the event as momentous.
“This is one of the biggest initiatives ever conducted by the ministry,” he said.
The first phase of the school locker initiative – set to be completed by the end of this month – will benefit 626 double-session schools nationwide with the installation of 249,646 lockers.
An allocation of RM37.3mil had been set aside for the initiative.
The second phase is expected to start next year, where it will be extended to Years Four, Five and Six pupils in double-session schools.
Big bag: The issue of heavy schoolbags has been happening for a long time.A weighty problem
The issue of heavy schoolbags has been plaguing pupils for many years.
Acknowledging that it is a longstanding problem for the ministry, Radzi shared how he had been inundated by a deluge of reports and newspaper clippings about pupils being burdened by heavy schoolbags during his early days at the ministry.“It’s not a new issue and has been taking place for many years,” he conceded, explaining that the ministry had to put the issue on the back burner between 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When schools finally reopened, we went down to the ground to find out what exactly pupils were carrying in their bags,” Radzi said.
To his surprise, the ministry discovered that pupils were carrying around a myriad of items inside their backpacks.
“Apart from textbooks, there were food and drink containers, change of clothes for religious class, and a variety of exercise books,” he said.
A detailed study conducted to identify the best approaches for tackling this perennial problem culminated in the announcement of seven holistic solutions (see graphic) to put the heavy schoolbag issue to bed once and for all.
Solutions in place
One of these is, of course, the school locker initiative for double-session schools.
“For schools with one session, pupils can keep their books in the drawers of their respective desks,” Radzi explained.
Other measures taken to solve the issue of heavy schoolbags included the reorganisation of timetables to fit only three to four subjects a day and giving schools the flexibility to provide a timetable according to a weekly rotational system.
“When pupils have so many subjects in a day, the bags will definitely be heavy. By reducing the subjects to between three and four, we can make sure that pupils are not burdened by studying too many subjects in a day,” Radzi explained.
Confident that the weekly timetable rotational system will be able to lessen the number of textbooks and activity books brought by pupils to school daily, he said the ministry had also limited the type of activity books and workbooks used by pupils to tackle the heavy schoolbag issue.
“Based on the ministry’s observations, there are certain subjects that have five to six exercise books,” he said, adding that some pupils would bring all the books to school because they were unsure which book would be used during lessons.
The ministry, he said, is also embracing digital textbooks by continuing to publish new textbooks in the digital format.
Assuring parents that the ministry will monitor schools and teachers to ensure that these measures are adhered to, he said the ministry will always strive to do its best for pupils.
For pupil Muhamad Amirul, he is glad that he no longer has to bring such a heavy backpack to school.
And to top it off, he has his own personal locker – all shiny and new in the cool shade of blue.
“I’m really excited about my new locker,” he said with a shy grin.
There won’t be anymore issue of books being left at home. With the lockers, pupils can leave all their books at school. Thus, they won’t need to bring heavy schoolbags anymore. I am sure they will have a more comfortable, safe and fun learning experience. We will also take this opportunity to teach pupils to be responsible for the lockers and to take care of them properly.”
– Zaidah Abdul Talip, SK Gombak Setia headmistress
The locker will greatly reduce the burden of heavy schoolbag for my son. Pupils will also feel more encouraged to go to school, now that they have these new lockers to look forward to. I hope that this initiative will successfully continue into the next phase and benefit more pupils.
– Siti Noorhajar Abdul Hamid, parent
