It was not long ago, only a couple of years back in 2016 , a study made by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India (ASSOCHAM) revealed a very disturbing figure.It transpired that68% of pre-teen Indian school children might suffer from mild back pain, which can develop into chronic back pain, and later into a hunchback.

From the study italso came outthat over 88% of children, in the age group of 7-13, carry more than 45% of their weight on their backs with most students mandatorily carryingover 20 textbooks and exercise copies daily, together with sports kits and other equipments on certain days.

Standingat2019 whichis just a month old it can be said that the above figures haven’t gone any revolutionary changes for the better and the shabby state of affairs stillpersist.And with the problemequally relevant in Arunachal Pradesh, an important meeting was held in the capital last Saturdaywhere our state’s EducationSecretaryand 59 principals and educators of various private schools of the Capital Complex and Doimukh area took part to discuss these pertinent issues.The topics touched were primarily health, hygiene, safetyand mitigating the evolving instances of harassmentof our wards and the excessive weights of their school bags.

There can be no denying of the fact that one of the biggest concerns of educators across the world, and especially in India, is making the present generation learners future-ready. India is relatively young as a nation with around 28 million youth population being added every year, but our high youth population won't be of help to the economy if universal education is not achieved all over India.Again, there is perhaps a wide gap between the overall quality ofeducation received by our urban learnersas compared to our rural children.If pedagogical innovations have been instrumental in bringing qualitative enhancement of education for our city kids , it is still bleakfor our village tinies.It hardly needs any reiteration that with 65 per cent of the population residing in rural India, education there truly deserves much more attention, especially when it is plagued with so many problems such as dearth of teachers, teacher absenteeism and poor quality of teachers.

Adding to this overall disagreeable scenario , we now have the issues ofhealth and hygiene parameters our schools provide and of course the ‘mountains’our kids carry compulsorily daily . It will not be an exaggeration to say it is really a torture to the eyes of any sensible person to withstand thesight of a small kid lugging a colossal school bag, a sight omnipresent in Arunachal and all over the country, the after-effects of the rat race to reach the top and as devised by our society.

And with the mission to save our children and as a result ofsome serious brainstorming , hopefullycertain innovations have emerged such as-summarised hand-outs of textbook concepts to keep the students load-free ,usage of e-resources including textbooks, audio and video material with free access through multiple technology platforms, i.e., phones, tablets and computers, designating one day in a weekas ‘No Bag Day’, when children don’t have to carry books to schools and so on.The sooner we embrace the best among these , the better it will be for our children.

Academics should not overshadow their health. Childhoodafter all is thetime to learn, and have fun.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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