Extra baggage!

Ali is a student of grade seven and his book bag weighs about 10 kilograms which he has to carry to the third floor of his school building to reach his class. He walks awkwardly as he tries to balance the heavy weight on his back. The struggle is evident but he seems oblivious to the pain that others can see on his face. He often complains of backaches and his legs hurt but if you ask him if his bag is heavy he looks surprised, apparently his body has become used to this extra load.

However, many students cannot bear the increasing burden that the book bag has become. Like Ali, 11-year-old Shazia and her younger brother Fahd complained about backaches but their parents didn’t take notice of this, attributing these to growing pains. But it did not occur to them how both of their children were suffering from the same thing. Their doctor examined the children and declared they were perfectly fit and that indeed they were having growing pains, a common thing in children. But one day Shazia’s back pain became excruciating and she was rushed to emergency. However, Shazia could not pinpoint why her back was constantly hurting. She was sent from a nephrologist to a gynaecologist but nothing. After several tests the doctors declared that the child’s heavy school bag was the reason her back was aching. The parents contacted the school authorities and discussed this issue. At first the principal negated it completely as he had not known any student suffering from such an ailment. Later on, the school authorities came to know about several children who complained of pains similar to what Shazia had been facing. Instant orders were given that children bring books according to the timetable - which meant a couple of lesser books.

The heavy school bag is a serious problem affecting the health of students, who are too fragile to carry the weight on their backs. At times even parents cannot bear the weight of these school bags for too long, but sadly no steps are taken against it.

Over the years, school bags have become heavier because it seems that several books are needed during the average school day which only has 6 to 8 periods per day. That means 8 to 10 books and almost double the number of copies.

This is a huge number of books and copies but there is no way out of it since every subject has at least two copies - for class work and home work; then most subjects require workbooks. Language subjects usually have separate copies for spellings, composition and grammar; maths needs copies for algebra, geometry and arithmetic - so on and so forth.

“My son is in 1st grade and I can’t lift his bag, it is so heavy,” laments Najma who is a teacher herself. “I don’t understand why students have to carry so many books and copies. As a teacher I believe there should be lockers for the kids in the schools. Each child should have a locker allotted to him/her so that the course books and copies are accessible to the student at all times,” says Najma.

Mrs. Ahmed has been teaching for the past three decades and is currently teaching impoverished children. According to her she has been a witness to the bulging bags. “Initially teachers were more concerned about what was inside the copy - the content - now schools focus on how the copies look and not what goes in. I have studied in Pakistan, as well as abroad, but I don’t remember such heavy bags and such a large number of books and copies. We had fewer books but were given more knowledge,” she shares.

Mrs. Ahmed thinks that these days the students lack both mental and physical strength. “Children are burdened mentally and physically but the end product is a large group of people who have only wasted their lives in school,” observes Mrs. Ahmed.

“Back in the 1950s, when I was studying, students didn’t think books were their enemies because they were not forced to carry a large number of books that went unread. In those times students read more books as compared to today which was evident by the large number of libraries in the city that were always full,” enunciates Mrs. Ahmed.

One cannot deny the fact that at times the bag is heavier than the child, which means at one time the child is carrying more than its body weight on the back which is not good for growing muscles or the heart.

Dr. Waseem Shahid is a general physician and he says he gets a large number of young children complaining of back pains. “A child has a bag, usually strapped to the back, which is more than the child weighs. This causes stress to the back, neck and leg muscles and can also contribute to stunted growth in many children,” explains Dr Waseem.

“This is not helping our children, and especially those kids who get very little calcium and iron intake as well as other important nutrients, suffer the most. Doctors usually prescribe heavy painkillers, which may dull the pain and allow the children to carry on with their daily routine but the side-effects are long lasting,” he adds.

All over the world, schools are introducing steps to give more knowledge and reduce the burden. Many schools in countries like UAE have almost done away with books and copies and are relying on technology like tabs. Of course in Pakistan such a time is yet too far away and except for a handful of schools in Pakistan the rest will be relying on books for a long time to come.

However, some of the higher income schools have introduced the system of no bags and introduced lockers or other method in which worksheets are provided to the children making the school bags lighter. But considering the state of affairs of education in Pakistan, especially at the government level such a step seems to be near to impossible.

Parents should unite and get educationists, the government and school authorities involved in this and actual steps taken to decrease the burden on students.

In the future, permitted it gets enough funds and actually spends it on education, **the Ministry of Education should take steps to do away with the heavy bag culture and introduce alternate methods like carrying a large note-book, the type with several sections for different subjects. The bag could contain this notebook along with the required textbooks and stationery and nothing more. Moreover, tests should be conducted on scrolls of papers and if necessary kept in files in the school instead of having separate copies for all subjects. Copies with school logos should be stopped because this is just another business benefitting the schools and the paper market. The

schools should stop trying to make knowledge profitable for themselves and for once focus on the client of this business - the student.