Even after so many notifications and remainders, not a single school in Bhopal has initiated to follow the school bag policy. Teams from Child Rights Commission did several inspection and MP Human Right Commission took cognizance but all seems to be gone for a toss. For past three years Madhya Pradesh School Education (MP SED) is releasing notifications to follow the lighter bag policy for students. The department wrote to schools to initiate for lighter bag to the students during year 2022 but nothing could be done on ground level to improve the situation yet. In the new policy, district education officers were given power to take action in this regards but all went in vain.

 

In its notification, schools were asked to follow ‘Bag-less Day’ once in a week, no homework for students till class 2 and weight measurement was given for all classes to be followed for the bag. DEOs were asked to make spot visit of schools to measure the bag weight of students. Session has begun in all schools from April 1 and now schools are set to close the campus for summer holiday from April 30 but none of school worked to cut the bag’s weight. Center has also directed to reduce the bag weight of school going children as this is not good for their health. National Education Policy (NEP) also support the statement of reducing school bag load. NEP says to give practical education to the primary students and let them develop their creativity rather than mugging up chapters.

 

It allows students to focus on books and understand the topics instead of learning long answer and questions. However, in contrary to this, private CBSE schools are adopting the new education policy along with the traditional way. Talking to ‘The Hitavada’ over phone, District Education Officer (DEO) Anjani Kumar Tripathi said, “No school is allowed to ask students for carrying overloaded bag. We have given strict warning to schools for following the bag weight policy. If any school found to be violating the rules, action will be taken immediately. There is provision of penalising amount or cancelling the school’s license.”