Class 9 kids may have to resume carrying heavy bags to school

Under the trimester pattern of education — applicable to students of Classes 1 to 9 — an academic year is divided into three terms and textbooks for each term have been developed and supplied to students without compromising the content and competency.

According to a circular sent to all schools, the trimester will be scrapped for Class 9 students from the next academic year. Sources from the School Education Department said that the decision was taken to reduce the expenditure of printing textbooks thrice a year.

“Also, we have to distribute the books thrice and there have been frequent problems in the logistics,” a senior official from the department said.

Recently, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD) had issued circular to all the states that the weight of the school bags of students in Classes 1 and 2 should be only 1.5 kg and for those in Classes 8 to 10, the weight should be within 5 kg.

Now, however, students of Class 9 may have to carry bags heavier than 5 kg as each book will have about 400 pages. In addition to that, the students will also have to carry notebooks and other mandatory school gadgets along with the textbooks in their bags.

Taking a stand against this decision, the secretary of south zone parent teachers association, K Anantharaman, said, “Under the single semester system, students will be forced to carry heavy bags.”  He said his association would write a letter to the government to continue with the trimester system for the sake of the students.

Teachers too feel that the removing trimester system will also affect Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system, which was introduced along with trimester pattern.

“At present, under CCE each child is comprehensively evaluated in scholastic as well as in co-scholastic dimensions throughout the year. Changing the pattern will neither promote easy learning nor cater to the assessment needs of every child,” said PK Ilamaran, state president Tamil Nadu Teachers Association.

He claimed that the weight of the school bags may reach 8 kg and thus cause enormous inconvenience to students.