My 6yr old's schoolbag weighs almost as much as he does!

[dogg]

I carry it to his classroom which is against the rules, but I see other tiny kids struggling with their humongous bags. There's no way my kid is carrying that bag for more than a few steps!

SO tooday I'm seeing this attachment on the webz. I don't know if its authentic, but I hope it is.

I had a tiny little green canvas bag in infants... what the hell happened?

[redmanjp]

How much the laptop that the PP govt gave out weighed vs the textbooks? If its less just make ebooks for all textbooks so they only havw to carry the laptop and notebooks

[MaxPower]

O dogg,

Thas how the cookie d crumble back in the day. Hadda walk the walk or leave some books home and be a dunce.

Now remember parents nowadays have ipad and dem tablet, laptop etc...so they accustom to the luxury of light weight. So it perfectly normal to be unfit and crying and fighting up to hold dey child book bag and feel sorry for them. I mean no one uses them trolleys again. I dunno na, this generation weak.

[maj. tom]

Yeah but we all know that laptop scheme was a useless election gimmick. So how hard was it to come up with a book closet in each classroom and Government to buy the required MoE textbooks for the students to use in the day and lock it back at the end of the day? So much harder than giving them free laptops I bet!!! Which hardware would have got that contract to supply wood, nails and locks? Not enough taxpayers money can waste that way though!!!

[nick639v2]

Bunch of pansies... Bookbag doesn't weigh any more now than when I was in primary school yet we used to still find a way to pelt it all over or run all over with it as bell ring. Plus Yuh whole lunch bag round Yuh neck.

I had one trolley bag and after I get catch giving ride on it and it mash up it was back to backpack life

[sMASH]

it doesnt have ting like PTA meeting where u can bring that up with a teacher and the principal ?

[De Dragon]

O dogg,

Thas how the cookie d crumble back in the day. Hadda walk the walk or leave some books home and be a dunce.

Now remember parents nowadays have ipad and dem tablet, laptop etc...so they accustom to the luxury of light weight. So it perfectly normal to be unfit and crying and fighting up to hold dey child book bag and feel sorry for them. I mean no one uses them trolleys again. I dunno na, this generation weak.

How facking strong you want a 5-12 year old to be MaxCax?
If you had the ability to produce children, you'd know the ridiculous amount of books that they have to walk with each day. Mind you, some schools banned trolley bags for what reason I cannot fathom. Some like dogg said, frown on you carrying the bag for the children, but I'm not sure that you want to toe the line when your child's spine is at risk. I'm surprised you kantish answer didn't include that Vene could carry heavy bags.

[MaxPower]

^ yeh but were you able to even afford everything on their booklist?

Stop suffering your children na, let a real man take care of them.

U not a tad embarrassed of yourself?

[De Dragon]

^ yeh but were you able to even afford everything on their booklist?

Stop suffering your children na, let a real man take care of them.

U not a tad embarrassed of yourself?

Afford? Yes, even had surplus to take people's mom to Econo for level guts out

[matr1x]

The generation weak.

[alfa]

A simple timetable would solve all that, but I see nothing wrong in kids carrying heavy loads for the betterment of their own future especially since they now get dropped to and from school in air conditioned cars. But then again this is a generation that needs safe spaces and time outs

[Strugglerzinc]

It boggles my mind seeing modern parents escorting children 20ft to and from the school gate or in some cases i see man pick up the std 2+ chile at the gate and carry them to the car.

[No_Name]

75% of the responses in here signifies yuh gyul get Preg n come n tell you iz yrs, but in essence yuh eh even fackin break in da kant to say yuh knw how to father a child, properly...dumb, illiterate fools...

Op, I understand fully yr predicament btw...

For Infants, book bag weight is horrendous, same as some of the skools rules, timetable from std 1, too much e-books = many happy optometrists, Garcia & Fat Fool who wrote SEA = 2 good @ssh0les...!!!

[nervewrecker]

I remember my bookbag being heavy and walked to and from school. Kept me slim and strong, in later years had me full of energy when bags got lighter in form 4 and 5.
Nowdays cars lined up outside school to pick up and drop off school children. They dont even have to walk far with it.

[goalpost]

Real ignorant comments in here.

The bookbag thing is a serious issue. Why not just timetable the school day?

And if I have to park far (daughter school in POS) yuh damn well know I walking her to the school gate. This country different now.

[zoom rader]

I had one of those green roti bags for school. It was a never done bag and it was damm heavy, had to tote the damm thing changing the use of my shoulder to shoulder. After time your shoulders give out and your back in pain. No trolley bags in those days and no pick up from school. If you live in San Do there was always a hill to go up carrying the damm thing.

[Coppershot]

It was serious back in my times. I remember when i got to standard 4/5 book bag straps used to rip out from bag every school term. They weren't design for all that load. Also we used to drag the school bag close to the school entrance. So when you pickup reach on evenings is just a short sprint to tote the heavy bag to vehicle.

Schoolbag weight in schoolchildren is a recurrent and contentious issue within the educational and health sphere. Excessive schoolbag weight can lead to back pain in children, which increases the risk of chronic back pain in adulthood. There is limited research regarding this among the Maltese paediatric population. A cross-sectional study was undertaken across all schools in Malta among students aged 8–13 years (inclusive). Data were collected using a questionnaire detailing schoolbag characteristics, self-reported pain and demographic variables, such as age and gender. Structured interviews with participants were also carried out by physiotherapists. A total of 4005 participants were included in the study, with 20% of the total Malta schoolchildren population. Over 70% of the subjects had a schoolbag that exceeded the recommended 10% bag weight to body ratio. A total of 32% of the sample complained of back pain, with 74% of these defining it as low in intensity on the face pain scale–revised. The presence of back pain was statistically related to gender, body mass index (BMI), school and bag weight to body weight ratio. After adjusting for other factors, self-reported back pain in schoolchildren is independently linked to carrying heavy schoolbags. This link should be addressed to decrease the occurrence of back pain in this age group.

Source:
Schoolbags and back pain in children between 8 and 13 years: a national study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5405972/

Other studies cited:

Schoolbag weight carriage in Portuguese children and adolescents: a cross-sectional study comparing possible influencing factors
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6524289/

The Impact of Backpack Loads on School Children: A Critical Narrative Review
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6267109/

[VexXx Dogg]

"When I was X, we did Y." is a tired argument. Times change, curriculum and subjects change. The world has changed. If you want to stay in the good old days, good for you - but don't expect your kids to stay there with you.

Kids now have more books from an earlier age, and this is the state of education/progress.

The timetabling is an excellent initiative to reduce this everyday load.

[abbow]

I remember my bookbag being heavy and walked to and from school. Kept me slim and strong, in later years had me full of energy when bags got lighter in form 4 and 5.
Nowdays cars lined up outside school to pick up and drop off school children. They dont even have to walk far with it.

i used to walk from Grant tr where the hw ends now to almost grant trace junction....with school bag...thats about two miles....kids these days are grown too soft....including mines..

[aaron17]

I remember it ... its like carrying another person on my back. Now I have posture and back problems... scarred for life with other issues from school too. I hate school.

[16 cycles]

every generation says the following generation is soft....till they get old and welcome the caring nature....

[Redman]

"When I was X, we did Y." is a tired argument. Times change, curriculum and subjects change. The world has changed. If you want to stay in the good old days, good for you - but don't expect your kids to stay there with you.

Kids now have more books from an earlier age, and this is the state of education/progress.

The timetabling is an excellent initiative to reduce this everyday load.

Agreed-

There are too many books that are hardly used is at all as well. But kids tote them back and forth for the year.

Why isnt there a serious push towards ebooks and smart classes?

[VexXx Dogg]

"When I was X, we did Y." is a tired argument. Times change, curriculum and subjects change. The world has changed. If you want to stay in the good old days, good for you - but don't expect your kids to stay there with you.

Kids now have more books from an earlier age, and this is the state of education/progress.

The timetabling is an excellent initiative to reduce this everyday load.

Agreed-

There are too many books that are hardly used is at all as well. But kids tote them back and forth for the year.

Why isnt there a serious push towards ebooks and smart classes?

Think it boils down to cost.
Capex plus opex.
The initial investment will be ridiculously high, plus factor in the usual bobol - then the annual cost to upkeep/maintain, plus the usual bobol there too.
The curriculum needs to change to cater for this shift, which needs to be done across the board. This makes it even harder because not all schools are on the same playing field.

It's a very complex issue to tackle and not enough wherewithal to see it through.
We're not ready yet as a country. I'll cite the Kamla laptop debacle as an example of what NOT to do.

[zoom rader]

Afro and kool Lee ppl problems,

Syrians, whites and Chinese don't tote book bags

[88sins]

It boggles my mind seeing modern parents escorting children 20ft to and from the school gate or in some cases i see man pick up the std 2+ chile at the gate and carry them to the car.

did you ever consider that some men actually love their kids so much they see nothing wrong lifting them or carrying them no matter how big they might be? or that possibly said child told his father he was not feeling too well, so for the sake of speed and the child's comfort daddy opted to carry him?

that kinda thing ain't for everybody, but it isn't an absolute no-no either.

[eliteauto]

schoolbags particularly for primary school children are too heavy, they are directly linked to the bloated school curriculum which is part of a system that is failing

[Joshie23]

It boggles my mind seeing modern parents escorting children 20ft to and from the school gate or in some cases i see man pick up the std 2+ chile at the gate and carry them to the car.

did you ever consider that some men actually love their kids so much they see nothing wrong lifting them or carrying them no matter how big they might be? or that possibly said child told his father he was not feeling too well, so for the sake of speed and the child's comfort daddy opted to carry him?

that kinda thing ain't for everybody, but it isn't an absolute no-no either.

Agreed, 100%. I'm in tears at how the general direction of the thread is how sensitive this generation is, yet what a man does for HIS child(ren) is giving men in this same thread chest pains.

[Redman]

Well IMHO-
Mandate that the authors/publishers have an E book version-purchasable online.

LET ME decide as a parent whether I want to do this..The GORTT sets the policy-private sector fills the space.

Let the market make the conversion
And the first time my boy refuse to hold my hand in the mall- i wanted to ded....just saying

[rollingstock]

Why this little maxcunt don't shut the fcukup?

[MG Man]

all this beatup, when the solution is so simple: duncey chirren