School bags getting lighter in some primary schools

PETALING JAYA: Strict measures to reduce the weight of school bags, which can weigh up to 10kg, are slowly bearing fruit in some primary schools.

It has been about a month since SK Desa Pandan, Kuala Lumpur, reorganised its timetable and instructed pupils to bring fewer books to school to address the long-standing problem.

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Parent Teacher Association (PTA) committee member Norshira Abdul Jalil said the results are visible as the weight of her Year Three daughter’s school bag had reduced by at least 50%.

“The PTA and school discussed and implemented the initiatives Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin announced last month to tackle the issue of heavy school bags.

“Our teachers are very proactive and they conduct spot checks on pupils’ bags.

“They even constantly remind the children what books are needed and what should be left behind; it has been effective,” she said.

Although the ministry’s initiatives are currently for Years One, Two and Three pupils, Norshira said teachers had implemented the same for the older pupils as well, as the bags of her other children (Year Six daughter and Year Five son who are in the same school) were much lighter than before.

Last month, Radzi announced that the ministry had devised seven holistic solutions to overcome the issue of heavy school bags.

These include providing lockers for double-session primary school pupils while single-session school pupils keep their books in their desk drawers, reorganising timetables to only three or four subjects per day, giving schools the flexibility to provide a timetable according to a weekly rotational system, and limiting exercise books to two per subject.

Workbooks are only to be used as reference material outside official teaching and learning (PdP) sessions.

Liana Haris, who is chairman of SK Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya, said her school implemented its measures before Radzi’s announcement.

The school, she said, allowed pupils to leave their workbooks and activity books in their classrooms.

As most classes have book racks, the pupils’ school bags are much lighter now, she said.

Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education (Magpie) chairman Mak Chee Kin said primary schools are not only adjusting the number of periods per subject a day, they are also providing cupboards to keep textbooks to lighten the pupils’ load.

He said it would take time for schools to show improvement and results in the matter.

“However, limiting the number of exercise book pages to only 80 and the usage of workbooks outside PdP may not work well academically for some teachers and students.

“We must remember that one size does not fit all and we prefer the ministry leaving it to the wisdom of the schools, principals and PTAs to decide on such matters,” Mak added.

National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Wang Heng Suan said that while teachers have been following the ministry’s initiatives, it is not the complete solution to the problem.

He said a study the ministry conducted a few years ago revealed that more than 70% of pupils’ school bags contained items other than their textbooks, like big water bottles and food packs.

As such, Wang believed that the initiatives to reduce the number of books pupils bring to school would only solve 30% of the problem.

He said books only take up approximately 3kg of a school bag’s weight.

A heavy school bag, he added, would be anywhere between 10kg and 11kg.