CREATIVE: EXPRESS
Video credits: Farwa Zainli, Mustafa Hussain and Ahtisham Hayat
Seventh-grader Batool Zehra prepares her bag according to her class schedule every day. It is still so heavy she began carrying it in her hands instead of on her shoulders. Eventually, her wrist began to swell, after which her doctor strictly advised her not to carry her bag anymore.
Now her father carries the bag to the classroom. In the afternoon, her classmates or teacher help her hang it on her shoulders.
The Express Tribune surveyed children's school bags across four schools in Karachi, weighing the bags of 80 students from two government and two private schools. From each of the schools, the bags of ten students from grades one through ten were weighed.
On average, a government school student's bag weighs 6.89 kg and holds 13.55 books while a private school student's bag weighs 5.75 kg and holds 15.15 books.
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Dr Nand Lal, director of the paediatrics department at Ruth Pfau Hospital, says children are increasingly complaining of back and neck pain.
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Lal says heavy school bags are dangerous for children with low Vitamin D levels and complicate their growth.
"Children's bones are like trees," he says, "they bend under the burden of weight."
Some of the heaviest bags in government schools carried eighteen books weighing between eight and 10 kg, while in private schools numbers went as high as 22 books weighing nine kg.
Few of the students surveyed were carrying books according to their academic schedules and a limited number also carried their tuition books to school. One first grade student who weighs 20kg himself was carrying a five kg bag.
Girls carry their school bags as they walk along a road while heading to their school in Peshawar. PHOTO: REUTERSDr Fauzia Khan, Head of Sindh's school curriculum wing says the education department is tackling the issue of heavy school bags in two phases.
In the first phase, a class schedule will be printed at the back of every textbook beginning in the April 2019 academic year. A clear delineation of what books are needed on what days will help students and their parents pack their bags accordingly.
Currently, primary school students in government schools are forced to carry all their books because they are only available under a single jacket provided by the Sindh Textbook Board.
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The education department has decided to end jacket books from the 2020 academic year and publish individual books separately to reduce the load of books.
Dr Fauzia presided over a meeting held to address the issue. Recommendations included providing cupboards to students in government schools, moving to electronic forms of learning and that schools teach different subjects on different days rather than all subjects, every day.
Hamid Karim, the Secretary of Education, says the syllabus should be shortened and the number of textbooks reduced.
Muhammad Afzal is the father of a girl studying for her O-level examinations. He says he helps his daughter carry her bag up to her school van, and with much difficulty. "I can only imagine how she carries it to school every day," he says.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2019.
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