Paying heed to the advice of medical experts and demand of the parents the Jammu & Kashmir Government at last directed both Government and Private school not to ask children enrolled in pre-primary classes to bring schools bags with them. Freeing the children of pre-primary classes from the weight of school bags is no doubt tantamount to freeing them from the stress on their physical movements from their home to schools in the morning and back to their homes from their schools in the evening, but admission tests for nursery classes conducted by private schools just before knocking the doors of schools is more grave threat to the physical and mental health of children than the weight of school bags. Absolutely laudable it is that Government has not only exempted children of pre-primary classes from carrying bags to their schools but has also reduced the weight of school bags for the children of primary, middle and secondary classes as well. Regulating the weight of school bags from time to time as per the guidelines of the Central Government’s Ministry of Education is an initiative that has a direct bearing on physical and mental health of children. However while irrefutable fact is that heavy study material, assignments for necessary revisions at home, lunch boxes and water bottles when put together in a school bag not only takes a physical toll on children but also increases mechanical burden on their spine , the stress of admission tests even before knocking the doors of schools for admission to a nursery class is a highly objectionable practice proving detrimental for physical and mental health of children at a very early age. After the stress of admission tests children face the increasing stress of home assignments and term tests in pre-primary classes. Since home assignments and term tests are executed with more stress in private schools than the Government schools, it is for the School Education Department to take an early call on admission tests for nursery classes and also the term tests and home assignments for the same classes.
“Now when the Government has taken a call on stress of school bags on children in pre-primary classes, the stress of admission tests for nursery classes and also the home assignments and terms tests in pre-primary classes is yet to catch the attention of the top brass of the school education Department of the Jammu & Kashmir Government. Never forget that stress of school bags comes next to stress of admission tests for nursery class and home assignments and term tests for pre-primary classes”.
While the private schools start the education of children with stress by asking them to sit in the tests for admissions even to nursery classes, a blanket ban on such tests for admissions to nursery classes if enforced strictly would guarantee a stress free environment for the children of nursery classes. Though former Chairman Fee Fixation & Regulation Committee (FFRC) Justice (Retd) Muzaffar Hussain Athar had in one of his newspaper columns slammed private schools for conduct of admission tests for nursery classes but the Government did not take seriously his reservations even as the head of the Fee Fixation & Regulation Committee (FFRC). Now when the Government has taken a call on stress of school bags on children in pre-primary classes, the stress of admission tests for nursery classes and also the home assignments and terms tests in pre-primary classes is yet to catch the attention of the top brass of the school education Department of the Jammu & Kashmir Government. Never forget that stress of school bags comes next to stress of admission tests for nursery class and home assignments and term tests for pre-primary classes.
