Bengaluru: After years of being told that the weight of the school bags should be limited so that it does not become a burden on the students, the Karnataka state government has passed a rule that the school bag should not weigh more than 10 percent of the weight of the student. A memorandum has been circulated in this regard by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education of Karnataka.

It has been stated in the memorandum that the weight of the school bags of students studying in 1st and 2nd standards should not exceed 2 kilos and the weight of the school bags of those in 3rd, 4th and 5th standards should not exceed 3 kilos. The weight limit for 6th to 9th standard school bags is 4 kilos and for 10th standard it is 5 kilos. The Department of Primary and Secondary Education has announced that the new rule has to be strictly followed from the current academic year.

The Education Department passed this rule following a study conducted by the Department of State Educational Research and Training in collaboration with the Centre for Child and the Law-National Law School in 2016-17. All the government, affiliated and non-affiliated schools are asked to follow the new rule. The opinions of the students in this regard are also being collected.

According to the new rule, the school teachers are not supposed to give homework to the students of class I an II and the note books of these students should not be more than 100 pages. Every third Saturday of the month should be declared as ‘No school bag day’ and the school authorities should engage the students in extracurricular activities during these days. In addition to that, it has been stated that arrangements should be made to keep important books which are used on a daily basis in the class rooms itself.