A burden on small shoulders: Parents complain about the weight of school bags

Only a few weeks had passed since the start of the school year, when many parents began to raise their voices complaining about the weight of the bags that their children carry every day to school, considering that this extra burden constitutes a physical and psychological burden on the children, and exposes them to early health problems in the back and shoulders.

Maysaa, a mother of two primary school children, says: “My son is in the sixth grade, but his bag seems bigger than him! I watch him go out in the morning with difficulty, as there are many books and thick notebooks, and even drawing and activity tools are not left at school. I am worried about the effect this will have on his spine.”

As for Salim, the father of a fourth-grade student, he expressed his dissatisfaction, saying: “From the first week, my daughter started complaining of pain in her shoulders, and when I weighed the bag, I found that it exceeded five kilograms! I tried to talk to the school to reduce the number of daily books. They said that they tried to reduce the materials as much as possible, but the books are thick.”

A number of educational doctors indicate that the ideal weight of the school bag should not exceed 10 to 15% of the child’s weight, which is a global standard aimed at protecting bone growth and avoiding permanent bends or curvatures. But in reality, this limit is far exceeded in most schools, especially in the primary grades, which require a large number of books and notebooks.

Education specialists believe that the reason lies not only in the density of the curricula, but also in the absence of organization within schools, as there are no designated places for storing books or dividing schedules in a way that takes into account the diversity between days.

Some private schools have begun to adopt digital copies of books or the two-day system to reduce the load, in which the study materials are divided into two different days, so that the student does not carry all his books every day, but this solution is still limited in popularity.

Today, many voices are calling on the Ministries of Education and Health to intervene to regulate this issue, by requiring schools to monitor the weight of bags and educating parents on the correct ways to carry them, such as choosing a bag with two wide straps and distributing the weight inside it in a balanced way.

The school bag may seem like a traditional symbol of learning, but it should not turn into a daily burden that burdens students’ shoulders and threatens their health at an early age. Between the weight of books and the weight of responsibility, the child’s comfort remains a priority that should not be ignored.

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