Weight of schoolbags

j.chircop

Nov 30th 2008, 12:13

im a student.. nowadays attending a local sixth form. My sister, attending a secondary school weighs about 40 kilograms. according to this article the bag should weigh 8kgs. Wow what a joke. a soon as se comes home i take her bag and take it to her room and im quite sure it weighs much much more han those 8kgs.
Schools should provide books to students in order to avoid such weights from student's back.
She also says that if she forgets a book she gets a report.
oh come on teachers.
and @ S Bonnici, i assure you my mum never carried any bag. lanqas my nanna.

J. Tonna

Nov 28th 2008, 21:24

@ S. Bonnici - All I ask is that you just tell them which books they will need to tomorrow's lessons.

S Bonnici

Nov 28th 2008, 19:38

@ J. Camilleri & J. Tonna

You are saying that b4 they leave school i should have a set of scales to weigh the child and the schoolbag's weight and check each and every bag they carry?

Provide them with alternatives and they wont carry... the real problem is that even though one tells them not to carry... they don't really worry... cos outside the school's doorstep, there's mummy or nanna waiting to carry the bag willingly.

Dr Michael A. Riccioli

Nov 28th 2008, 19:21

@H.Galea
Where in the EU have they done away with books? Certainly not in France. My children still carry very heavy bags. We asked if we could buy a second set of the books they and if they could leave one set at school, and the headmaster said no. We asked if we could photocopy the pages they needed on any particular day and the teachers said no. At a meeting when I raised the question and told everyone present that our GP was not very happy with the weight my children had to carry some people laughed at me. Wonder when Brussels is going to react .... would be cheaper to buy a second set than to have to go and see the doctor for backache.

h.galea

Nov 28th 2008, 18:01

EU countries are doing away with books. Students are only carrying laptops to school. Lessons are download. This way in a way can save back aches and money going out of the counrty.

N. Grima

Nov 28th 2008, 15:59

I remember my not-so-good old days at school... The crazy thing's I'd do to reduce the backpack weight, like putting the lighter books (which were ones used regularly) at the bottom... the weight would exceed 12kg and I used to be 45kg - who needed a gym after all! One solution is photocopies - teachers say which chapter is next and voila! Plus, half my books had only a few chapters we used at all (smelling fish, anyone?). Another, which my school did implement, is lockers. Irrespective of whether you're slacker, happy-go-lucky or bookworm, there's no way you're gonna use more than three books in one evening for studying + HW books, say another 5 books. That's only like 4kg to carry if one is disciplined enough to choose which books to take home. The catch? Well.. in my day, if a student was caught without the book (an easy mistake in the above system) or missed his HW given only the day before (easy to leave the book in the locker), he'd be kicked out of the lesson and shown to the coordinator's office. Needless to say, I preferred to take the risk than ruin my back.

lgalea

Nov 28th 2008, 15:57

This is all due to the lack of lockers where the students can keep their books and only take home those connected with the particular subjects they are studying for the day after.

J. Tonna

Nov 28th 2008, 12:51

I agree with you all. Isn't ieasy for a teacher (being in a primary or secondary school) to tell students what books to take with them the next day or day by day, as we used to be told at the Lyceum??? I do not think we are asking for too much.

Franco Farrugia

Nov 28th 2008, 12:43

@ Mr Camilleri -
Is that so?
Then, sue us.

Joseph Grech

Nov 28th 2008, 12:31

Ms.Cristina, Children attending the Primary schools are compelled to take all their books those given to by the school and those which are bought, all the copybooks, files, photocopies and project books and display books everyday. he or she who do not comply with is faced with punishments like not going out of class during breaks and notes to parents. So please go to schools and take a look yourself.

Joe Camilleri

Nov 28th 2008, 11:48

For primary schools, the teacher should be held responsible.

As for secondary schools, the form teacher should be held responsible so that he must co-ordinate with the teachers on what files,books etc should the student bring on a particular day.

A.Sacco

Nov 28th 2008, 10:54

Whenever I fetch my 10year old grandson from school, I end up almost exhausted just carrying his heavy bag from the school gate to the car! So much so, that he often attempts to refuse to hand over his bag, notwithstanding the enormous weight he has to carry on his fragile back. Please put an end to this cruelty against children.

Anton Bartolo

Nov 28th 2008, 09:47

Either Minister ot the Reporter got it wrong here! The Body Mass Index is "a measurement of the relative percentages of fat and muscle mass in the human body used as an index of obesity."

20% of BMI makes no sense! I suppose what is meant is 20% of body mass.

According to the American Physical Therapy Assoc., American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, and the American Chiropractic Assoc., maximum weight of a child's backback should be as follows:

Child Max. Wt
0-27kg 2.3kg 8.3%
27-34kg 4.5kg 13.3%
34-45kg 6.8kg 15.0%
45-57kg 8.2kg 14.4%
57-68kg 9.1kg 13.3%
68-91kg 11.3kg 12.5%

Well below the 20% limit!

A study in New Zealand (http://www.ergonomics4schools.com/research/schoolbags.htm) concluded that: "The average weight of schoolbags (6.6 kg, 11.7% of body weight) carried by secondary students in five New Zealand schools exceeded recommended international industrial guidelines for handling of loads by adults and the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms amongst the students was high. We believe there is a need for secondary schools to develop specific strategies to reduce the physical strain associated with carriage of schoolbags by their students in order to help prevent the onset and development of musculoskeletal symptoms."