Education Minister speaks out against heavy schoolbags

Georgia’s Education Minister is promising to introduce a new law that will radically improve the health and wellbeing of young students.

Today Minister Aleksandre Jejelava said children were currently forced to carry heavy bags to and from school, and in 2017 new rules would be introduced that will limit the weight of school backpacks.

This issue has been spoken about for many years however Jejelava was the first Education Minister in the history of independent Georgia to address the growing problem.

He said it was a serious issue that needed to be addressed as prolonged carrying of heavy bags could cause serious damage to the growing bodies of young children.

It is a serious problem that our children have to carry very heavy school bags,” said Jejelava. 

One of the reasons for this is because kids have to take several big, thick books to school and home again each day.” 

The Minister said the issue of heavy school bags has been known about for many years but hasn’t been the focus of the Education Ministry, until now.

The Ministry was currently working on a plan that would limit the weight of a child’s school backpack. The new rules would come into play from the next academic year. 

For many years parents have spoken out on social media and through various petitions against heavy school bags, the increasing weight of school bags and the necessity of some children and older students having to carry several books each weighing between four and nine kilograms. 

The Ministry did not specify how it would reduce the weight of school bags but some potential ideas include reducing homework book size and weight while keeping larger text books in the classroom and encouraging children to use online sources for homework instead of books.