Madhya Pradesh Schools Allow Students to Go ‘Bag Less’ Once a Week

The Madhya Pradesh government has announced “bag less school” once a week, during which students can participate in sports activities, play games, attend cultural activities, and many more in the schools. The initiative will be introduced by the government for students of classes 1 to 12 from the upcoming new academic session 2024-25 in the state. This step has been taken to reduce the stress of the students.

This initiative will be applicable to all government and private schools operated in Madhya Pradesh. The state government has also released an official notice for the same in which it has also mentioned the weight of the students’ bags according to their classes.

As per the official notification, the maximum weight of the school bag for students in classes 1 and 2 will be between 1.6 and 2.2 kg. Similarly, for classes 3 to 5, the bag weight is decided to be between 1.7 and 2.5 kg, for classes 6 and 7, it is between 2 and 3 kg. In addition to that, the maximum weight of the school bag for students in class 8 is 2.5–4 kg and 2.5–4.5 kg for students in classes 9 and 10.

Furthermore, the weight of school bags for students of classes 11 and 12 will be decided according to the stream of the students by the school management committee.

Meanwhile, School education minister Uday Pratap Singh while speaking to ANI said, “To avoid stress on children due to the burden of their bags, we have categorized the weight of bags of students as per their class. The younger students’ bag weight will be up to 2.2 kg and the older students’ bag weight will be 4.5 kg. We have also decided ‘Bag less school’ once a week.”

Elaborating further, the minister said that ‘Bag less school’ means that children should enjoy that day by participating in sports activities, playing games, listening to music, attending cultural programmes, and so on. On that day, the students should be kept engaged in such a way that school does not appear like a matter of stress to them, rather it should be a matter of joy for them. The minister went on to say that they have taken this endeavour intending to release the stress of the students

The MP government has given instructions to strictly implement the school bag policy from the next academic session (2024-25).