Central District Community Service Consultative Council member Cheong Sok Leng said yesterday that overweight schoolbags were not only a burden on pupils’ backs, but also adversely affecting their health, urging the government to tackle the issue of overweight satchels.
Cheong made the remarks during a regular meeting of the government-appointed council at the Patane Municipal Market Complex on the peninsula.
Cheong noted that in recent years the government has focused more on international tests such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), so local pupils were also getting more homework and pressure from school, and likewise the number of pupils’ exercise books and textbooks were also on the rise.
Cheong noted that Hong Kong’s Department of Health suggested that a schoolbag should weigh no more than 10 percent of a child’s weight while Taipei adopted the standard of no more than 12.5 percent of the weight.
According to a guideline by the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) for local schools for the academic year of 2017/2018, the bureau suggested a schoolbag should weigh no more than 15 percent of the pupil’s weight.
“Pupils need to carry a large quantity of exercise books and textbooks back and forth between their homes and schools everyday making their schoolbags like a burden. Some parents and children look for solutions to tackle this problem [to avoid excessive schoolbag weight], such as getting a spinal support schoolbag or a trolley school bag, and photocopying textbooks,” Cheong said, adding that those strategies were a relief, but not a cure.
Cheong underlined that pupils’ large and overweight schoolbags could lead to accidents when they are walking up and down stairs. Apart from exposing pupils to possible accidents, Cheong noted that schoolbags which are too heavy damage children’s spines, and lead to possible back, leg and neck pain, adding that some might even develop scoliosis, the abnormally sideways curving of the spine, which is detrimental for children’s body development in the long term.
She urged local schools to adopt a curriculum which allows pupils to have less homework, and provide lockers for them to use, so that they wouldn’t need to take so many textbooks and exercise books to school every day.
This photo taken yesterday in Calcada da lgreja de S.Lazaro shows a man carrying a schoolgirl’s schoolbag after picking her up from school. Photos: Joel Chu
Central District Community Service Consultative Council member Cheong Sok Leng poses during a regular meeting of the council at the Patane Municipal Market Complex on the peninsula.
