J&K government does away with school bags & formal textbooks for pre-primary students

The Jammu and Kashmir School Education Department has done away with school bags and formal textbooks for pre-primary students. As per a notification, issued by Principal Secretary, School Education Department, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, the schools have been directed not to assign any homework to the students up to 2nd standard. 

The Department issued the notification as per Rule 8A in the School Education Act under which the heads of the schools have been entrusted to ensure that students of pre-primary schools are not asked to carry any bag except light carrier for lunch box.

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“No formal books are prescribed at pre-primary (Nursery, LKG, UKG) levels. However, students of these classes may be provided maximum of two notebooks/workbooks toIn case of violation of the order, Government may cancel affiliation, recognition of the schools, the notification reads.
be kept in the teachers’ custody in the school itself,” the notification reads.

The Department has also fixed maximum permissible weight of the school bags for students of diverse classes.There is no school bag for pre-primary students and weight of the school bag for class 1 and 2 should not exceed 1.5 kg.

Similarly, the notification further reads that the permissible weight of school bags has been fixed as 3 kg, 4 kg, 5kg and 5.5 kg for standards of 3rd to 5th, 6th to 7th, 8th to 9th and 10th classes respectively.

As per the amendments made in the Act, no school should prescribe any other subjects except language and arithmetic for class 1st and 2nd students.

“Students from 3rd to primary classes should be prescribed only language subjects, Environmental Science and Arithmetic. Language, Social Science, Mathematics and Science for class 6th and 7th, or as prescribed by the affiliating authority,” the notification reads.

In case of violation of the order, Government may cancel affiliation, recognition of the schools, the notification reads. The notification further reads that School Education Department shall issue academic calendar every year for the schools affiliated with JK BOSE / Government which shall be followed by all the concerned schools.

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(Image Courtesy: PTI)