Daily Lessons from Life 14 January 2014 - Kids' weighty problem

"Kids' weighty problem - The Sunday Times     Jan 13, 2014

SINGAPORE - When six-year-old Shane Wong lifted his school backpack onto his 27kg frame on the first day of school last week, he "tilted forward", says his mum, restaurateur Celine Tan.

Ms Tan, 37, says: "The bag was 4.6kg and he couldn't stand up properly."

However, as teachers kept most of the books in school for the pupils' use when needed, his bag was just 2.6kg when SundayLife! photographed him on the third day of school.

Teachers usually offload workbooks as well as exercise and jotter books, leaving them in lockers or cubicles in school after the first few days.

Some schools, such as Alexandra Primary, has students with backpack was super light.

The Ministry of Education says it takes "the well-being and physical development" of students seriously and works with schools to "proactively guide students in lightening their school bags".

It adds that schools already have measures to "guide and remind" pupils to pack according to their daily timetables. There are also lockers in classrooms in some schools for pupils to keep what they need in class on each day of the week.

Ministry guidelines stipulate that a child should carry a bag that weighs no more than 10 per cent to 15 per cent of his weight. This means a child weighing 20kg should not lug a bag heavier than 2kg or 3kg.

Unfortunately, they do."

'What the heck is going on?' is the reaction I had when I read this headline as this 'issue' is a very old one and I thought it had been resolved LONG LONG eon ago!

Lessons for me are:

1. 'tradition' is very hard to remove! While some schools are doing well, there are others that are not. Maybe some of those who are not doing DID try but failed!;

2. is this the case of 'I will do it my way regardless of the policies established as long as I am NOT caught doing it'? I hope not. It will be tragic for 'teachers' to intentionally defy legal and lawful instructions and policies from their employer, the Ministry of Education! So, if there were some 'die hard' fans of 'heavy school bag', they must be the minority! Surely!;

3. since we have MORE progressive schools and teachers, the 'weighty' problems of students headlined here are JUST anomaly. Under this premise, the PARENTS MUST step in to intervene whenever they see that the weight of their school kits is greater than 10-15% of his or her weight. Get in touch with the school and teachers to understand what happened and HOW can this weighty issue be resolved for the wellbeing and physical development of the kids.

While I am SHOCKED to learn that this problem continued to exist, I am glad that it had been reported and renewed efforts to eradicate it can start or re-start in earnest! If we do nothing, it will never go away. If we do something, at least there is a chance it may go away!