Dear Editor,
There are many things that can lead to back pain. However, most of our Guyanese children now have backaches because they’re lugging around their entire week’s worth of books, school supplies, and personal items all day long.
Doctors and physical therapists recommend that kids carry no more than 10% to 15% of their body weight in their packs. However, our young students are carrying a lot more than that!
These bulky or heavy backpacks don’t just cause back injuries. There are several other safety issues to consider such as the fact that the children who carry large packs are not often aware as to how much space the packs take up and can hit others with their packs when turning around or moving through tight spaces within our already cramped schools. Further, students can be injured if they trip over large packs or a pack falls on them.
Carrying a heavy pack also changes the way children walk and puts them at risk of falling, particularly on stairs or other places where a backpack puts a student off balance.
Other older children who wear their backpacks over just one shoulder, as many do, because they think it looks better or just feels easier, may end up leaning to one side to offset the extra weight. They might develop lower and upper back pain and strain their shoulders and neck.
Improper backpack use can also lead to bad posture. Girls and younger children may be especially at risk for backpack-related injuries because they’re smaller and may carry loads that are heavier in proportion to their body weight.
The weight of the school bag has been in debate for years around the world, and experts have often concurred that heavy bags are inhuman for young students.
A precedent has been set in India more recently where the Government was in favour of reducing the weight of school bags and initiated a pilot project in 25 Kendra Vidyalaya schools to provide access to textbooks through digital tablets. Other countries successfully employed this method to reduce the weight of school bags for students.
We all need to start getting involved in solving students’ backpack burdens so as to lessen their loads.
We can look at best practice where the weight of a school bag in Delhi is officially fixed: school bags for students in Class I and II should not be above 1.5 kg; for Classes III to V (2-3 kg), Classes VI-VII (4 kg), Classes VIII—IX (4.5 kg), and Class X (5 kg). In addition, schools are asked not to assign any home work to Class I and II children.
Schools in Guyana need to really strategise ways they can get involved, such as giving students more time between classes to use lockers, adding school education programmes about safe backpack use or simply not ask students to bring additional books and other materials apart from the prescribed textbooks.
I urge parents to encourage the respective schools and get active in the PTA’s to advocate for schools to inform the students in advance about the books and notebooks to be brought to the school on a particular day. The weight of school-bags for Guyanese children is truly inhumane!
Yours faithfully,
Mommy V
