Education Minister says school bags are too heavy

Georgia’s Minister of Education, Alexander Jejelava, has promised that from 2017, the bags of Georgian schoolchildren would be lighter as currently they are too heavy for children to carry.

The Minister stressed that heavy bags could also cause some health-related problems, and the issue must be addressed.

“It is a serious problem that our children have to carry very heavy school bags. One of the reasons of this is that the children have to take several big and thick school books daily to school. The issue of the heavy bags has never been addressed before, but it is important,” the Minister said.

The Minister said some steps are being planned that would reduce school bag weight from the next academic year.

As parents write on social networks and in various petitions against the heavy bags, the weight of the school bag with all necessary books for different age categories weighs between four and nine kg.

It is a very serious problem as it affects the health of future generation, especially their posture and gait.

In case parents are unable to accompany their children to school, the children have to carry the heavy bags to and from school themselves.

Tbilisi Mayor’s Office has a special programme through which it monitors the situation in terms of scoliosis and flatfeet.

This year’s diagnostics revealed that 13,100 of the 18,000 children who were tested suffered from one of the conditions.

A heavy bag can be one of the causes of scoliosis, which is a serious health problem which can have serious consequences if ignored.

It will be good if the government keeps its promise and looks into the problem, though this is contingent on the minister not being replaced by the current government (of which the ruling party have made a disturbing habit) or the government being re-elected in October.