Panaji: As the Goa State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) prepares to implement National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, across all classes from the new academic year, it has decided to lighten the load of bags for students. It has told schools that students will use only 100-page books to reduce the bag weight.
The council has also said that students should be allowed to use one 100-page notebook for multiple purposes.These instructions will be applicable for students up to Class VIII.“To reduce the weight of students’ school bags, the following practices are recommended: Only short notebooks of 100 pages shall be used per subject for all purposes. A single notebook may be divided and used for multiple purposes such as dictation, tests, copywriting, class work, etc. No separate notebooks shall be prescribed for homework. All home practice activities shall be completed in the same notebook,” the SCERT said in its circular to all state schools.Schools have also been told to provide any worksheets for home practice “only when absolutely necessary”.The SCERT has said that it will provide the newly developed NEP-aligned textbooks/reference books to all govt and govt-aided schools free of cost. And that “no additional textbooks, reference books, or workbooks shall be prescribed beyond those issued by GSCERT” to students.The increased pressure of rising weight of school bags has been a constant concern for parents, along with the issue of its impact on a child’s physical health. This was even though the directorate of education has already issued a circular to schools, based on guidelines from the Union human resource development ministry, which states that the school bag weight should not exceed 10% of the child’s weight.Meanwhile, the SCERT has told schools to maintain teachers’ workload too compliant with Rule 20 (1) para 2 of The Goa, Daman and Diu School Education Act and Rules, 1984.“A teacher shall not ordinarily get more than 21 hours of workload, including non-academic subjects per week and a teacher may be required to devote not more than 200 hours in a year for remedial teaching, supervised studies etc. in addition to the actual weekly teaching workload of 21 hours, as per the program given by the head of the school,” schools have been told.The council has said that an additional teacher will be sanctioned by the directorate of education on contract/lecture basis wherever required based on the workload and that the services of the existing computer teachers are to be utilised for teaching vocational education for Classes VI to VIII.
