Mumbai: While teachers and education experts are rooting for lighter school bags, they are also stressing on the child’s all-round development, of which “health” is an important part.
The general view is that in the age of technology, where PowerPoint presentations and other audio-visual aids are used in classrooms, teaching should not be excessively book-based.
Sunanda Parker, a teacher, said, “With presentations, lessons in audio-visual (AV) classrooms, and teaching our students from the Internet, a minimum of four textbooks and one rough book should be enough.
Children don’t need to carry eight books just because we have eight lectures but sometimes parents add to the weight as well by sending fancy tiffin boxes and water bottles. More than education, books and competition, we should root for children’s health, as it is most important.”
For parents however, carrying lighter schoolbags seems to be most important, mainly because they feel their children are too tired to carry such heavy bags. Shailaja Joshi, a parent, said, “Even though there are school buses, I have seen my kid panting when he climbs up the staircase with his bag. It feels terrible that at this age, he has to go through this.”
