The Schools Health and Nutrition Branch of the Ministry of Education has raised concerns over some schools’ failure to follow the issued guidelines on reducing the weight of children’s school bags.
Despite instructions being circulated to all schools, it has come to light that certain teachers and principals have neglected these directives, resulting in students being required to carry unnecessary books.
Ganga Dilhani, Director of the Branch, stated that detailed instructions and procedures aimed at reducing the burden on students were communicated to school authorities through an official circular.
However, despite these efforts, there have been reports of non-compliance from various schools.
In response, the Ministry has deployed monitoring teams to visit schools and investigate complaints about the excessive weight of students’ bags.
The goal is to ensure that schools comply with the guidelines to safeguard the health of students.
According to recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO), the weight of a school bag should not exceed fifteen to twenty percent of the student’s body weight.
Specifically, the bag of a first-grade student should weigh between two and six kilograms, a second-grade student’s bag should be around three kilograms, and a fifth-grade student’s bag should be around four kilograms. For tenth-grade students, the recommended weight is approximately seven kilograms.
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