KUCHING: The issue of heavy school bags is a longstanding problem and can be resolved with the setup of smart classrooms with e-book facilities.
President of the Association of Boards of Management for Aided Chinese Primary Schools in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian Divisions, Datuk Jonathan Chai said with such technology support, children and students will not be required to bring physical textbooks to school.
He said the online textbook or the syllabus will be saved and stored in the system, which will greatly reduce the weight of the school bag.
Apart from that, he said, to alleviate the problem effectively, teachers should give clear instructions to students about the required items for the next schooling day, and advise students to bring books and items according to the school timetable or schedule.
“It will be even better if the schools could provide lockers and encourage the students to keep their books and items in lockers as much as possible,” he told New Sarawak Tribune when contacted.
“At the moment, SJK Chung Hua No. 6 is one of the schools in town which provides such a facility and it has been well utilized by the students,” he said.
In addition, parents should prepare suitable school bags, encourage and guide their children to pack their school bags according to the school schedule and cultivate doing so daily as a habit.
Chai said based on a study conducted by the Education Ministry in 2017, school textbooks and workbooks would only contribute to 28 per cent of that overall weight if (a school bag was packed) according to the daily schedule.
The study also showed that the issue of heavy school bags was due to other books and items such as extra exercise books, private sector’s books, dictionary, comics, water bottle, food container, stationery as well as sports attire or other clothing.
He said students should be trained to be self-disciplined to pack and tidy their own school bag every day to make sure only books or items required on that day are brought to the school and that unneeded books or items such as paper scraps should be put aside.
“Medical studies showed that the weight of the school bags on the shoulders and backs of these young children may be detrimental to their posture in the long run.
“Therefore, we need to take the problem of heavy bags seriously in order to take care of the posture and spinal health of the students,” he added.
Chai said in fact, the Education Ministry had issued a circular in 2018 to provide suggestions to schools, parents and teachers to help tackle the problem collectively in the interest of the students.
“From my observation, the problem has been substantially reduced with the ban of having extra exercise or workbooks for students in Primary 1 to 3 (listed in the circular) a few years ago,” he
He said other measures including to arrange and limit three to four subjects per day for each class, to reduce students’ homework by using modular learning and 21st Century Learning Method (PAK-21), carrying out periodic weight inspections of schoolbags, among others.
Yesterday, the Education Ministry in a written reply posted on the Parliament’s official website said it would study the issue of heavy school bags in detail and draft a holistic solution as the approach taken previously could not fully address the problem.
