Heavy School Bags: Education Ministry To Provide Locker Facilities In Primary Schools
The issue of heavy school bags has actually been going on for a long time.
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The Ministry of Education (KPM) will provide locker facilities in primary schools in phases starting this year.
The move is touted as a long-term solution related to heavy school bags which is a concern, especially for primary school students.
Senior Minister of Education, Senator Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said in a statement that the lockers will be provided for primary schools with two sessions.
According to him, phase one will involve the preparation of lockers for Year One, Year Two and Year Three students.
Phase One will involve 10,662 classes with a total of 323,186 students.
The total estimated allocation for 2022 for phase one is RM37.3 million. For phase two, the provision of lockers will be extended to Level Two students, namely Year Four, Year Five and Year Six in primary schools that operate in two sessions. Implementation is expected to be ready in 2023.
Senior Minister of Education, Senator Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin elaborating on the plan to install lockers at primary schools.
For one-session schools, students will keep their books in desk drawers in their classrooms, he added.
The approach was first introduced by the ministry as one of the seven holistic solutions to address the issue.
Berikut dikongsikan infografik berkaitan pendekatan KPM dalam menangani isu beg berat murid.
— Radzi Jidin (@RadziJidin) March 6, 2022
Sebanyak 7 pendekatan dan ketetapan digariskan yang akan dilaksanakan termasuk penyediaan lokar bagi menangani isu beg berat murid, khususnya murid Tahap 1 di sekolah rendah.
(1/4) pic.twitter.com/krHfJ6N5ug
READ MORE: School Bags Shouldn’t Weigh More Than 10% Of The Child’s Weight, Says Study
More Solutions In The Pipeline
Parents and academicians had complained that among the causes of the heavy school bag is the number of subjects in primary schools being too many.
As such, the ministry is also looking to rearrange the timetable by limiting it to between three and four subjects a day.
@abdullahjamadi Berat beg sekolah anak² kita..😅😅
♬ original sound – Abdullah Jamadi | Cikgu Urut
Mohd Radzi said in this regard, the school needs to take into account the weighting of subjects, the availability of teachers and also school sessions.
In addition, schools will be given the flexibility to prepare timetables according to the weekly cycle as is being implemented by some schools under the MOE. Each student is also not allowed to bring more than two exercise books for each subject at a time and each exercise book should not exceed 80 pages.
Senior Minister of Education, Senator Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin elaborating on adjusting the students’ timetable.
Students will only be allowed to use activity books provided by the ministry while workbooks can only be used as reference material or review material outside of teaching and learning time (PdP).
The KPM will also look into the continuous publication of new textbooks in digital format.
To date, a total of 692 titles of digital textbooks have been uploaded to the Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia (DELIMa) platform.
Students with devices can access digital textbooks through the DELIMa platform.
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