Bhubaneswar: Acting on reports that the school bags of students of some English medium schools in Odisha are more than the weight prescribed by HRD ministry, the state government has ordered a thorough inspection of the schools.
In a letter to the all Districts Collectors and District Education Officers (DEOs), the School and Mass Education Department has directed to check the weight of the bag of each student of all English medium schools and the books prescribed by the ministry.
The letter further said though the ministry has asked the schools to prescribe National Council of Education Research & Training (NCERT) books, some schools have prescribed other books.
The department has directed the DCs and DEOs to form special squads and conduct surprise raids on all English medium schools and take appropriate action for violating the ministry’s directive. It has also asked them to submit the report by September.
In a letter to all the states and Union Territories in November last year, the HRD ministry had asked them to formulate guidelines to regulate the teaching of subjects and the weight of the school bags. It had also asked the principals and headmasters not to assign homework to the students of Class I and II.
The ministry had categorically mentioned that the schools should not prescribe any other subjects except language and Mathematics for Class I and II children and Environmental Science (EVS) and Mathematics for the students of Class III, IV and V as prescribed by the NCERT.
Apart from this, the ministry had also asked the authority concerned to ensure that the students should not bring additional books and extra material.
The ministry had made it clear that the weight of the school bag should not exceed 1.5 kg for children of Class I and II, 2-3 kg for the children of Class III, IV and V, 4 kg for the students of Class VI and VII, 4.5 kg for the students of Class VIII and IX and 5 kg for Class X students.
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