Heavy bags and empty stomachs

Wednesday 6th March, 2024

The pitiable sight of schoolchildren staggering under heavy backpacks saddens one beyond measure. Doctors often caution against overloaded school bags, which place children’s delicate spines at risk of injury, but sadly their warnings go unheeded. The detrimental effects of heavy backpacks on students’ spine health are making headlines, once again.

The public debate on the ill-effects of excessively heavy schoolbags has been going on for decades, and some half-hearted measures have been adopted to address the issue, under successive governments. But the problem persists and musculoskeletal health problems are common among schoolchildren, as a result. The Education Ministry rises from its slumber, from time to time, and promises remedial action, but does little or nothing to mitigate the children’s burden.

What do students gain by lugging heavy bags to school? Has there been any discernible improvement in school education and overall educational standards? Can’t the quality of education be improved without students being made to carry heavy loads of books, etc., to school on a daily basis? Can the Education Ministry, which cannot ever so much as solve a problem like unnecessarily heavy schoolbags, consider itself worth its salt? Besides, one wonders whether the current education system places any emphasis on heuristic process, which is of pivotal importance because it fosters critical thinking, problem solving skill and creativity in children. Present-day Sri Lankan students, in our book, exemplify the Dickensian description of schoolgoers in Hard Times — … little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.

Has the country benefited from the current education system, which inflicts suffering on students by making them carry heavy loads like porters in Pettah? If so, why is the incumbent government so keen to introduce educational reforms? President Ranil Wickremesinghe is often heard stressing the need to reform the education system and realign it with the job market requirements among other things.

Extremely heavy backpacks, however, are only one of the problems schoolchildren and their parents have to contend with. In this country, there are laws to prevent the transport of cattle in cramped conditions. Noncompliance is severely dealt with. Drivers who transport cattle in overcrowded vehicles are arrested, prosecuted and fined. But there is no such legal protection for schoolchildren, who are crammed into overloaded vans and buses sans proper ventilation and made to suffer for hours in the scorching heat. School vehicle operators have become a law unto themselves, and exploit parents, who are made to cough up fees even during school vacations.

The problem of backbreaking school bags has to be solved once and for all, but it should not be allowed to eclipse other burning issues in the education sector. Malnutrition is prevalent among schoolgoers, and instances abound where children faint in schools due to hunger. This crucial issue has unfortunately been reduced to a mere political slogan. ‘Free education’ has apparently become a misnomer, given the ever-escalating cost of schooling, which many parents cannot afford. The government has exacerbated this problem by imposing VAT on school items while claiming to be on a mission to turn Sri Lanka into a knowledge hub in the region. School transport is prohibitively high. So is supplementary tuition, which all students are dependent on to prepare themselves for competitive examinations. Above all, children and their parents are gripped by a gnawing sense of insecurity mostly due to the current economic crisis. They need to be infused with hope and a sense of purpose if the pall of uncertainty that has descended on the country is to be cleared.