Make syllabus more digital-friendly to reduce bag weight - Harapan

Pakatan Harapan today reiterated its call for the Education Ministry to address the heavy school bag problem and suggested that they review the school syllabus to make it more digital-friendly.

In a statement, Harapan's Education Committee expressed its disappointment over the ministry's lack of response to the issue.

"Despite many education and health experts having voiced their concerns and come up with suggestions that the Education Ministry should take immediate action in this issue, the ministry unfortunately has not done anything.

"The committee takes this issue seriously because carrying heavy bags can harm school students in the long run, as per statements made by health experts before this," it said.

In their statement, the committee that comprises eight Harapan leaders including former education minister Maszlee Malik urged the Education Ministry to take several steps immediately to address the problem.

Besides reviewing the school syllabus, they also suggested that more textbooks be converted into digital or e-book form at all school levels and to ease access to digital textbooks for students in rural areas.

"Schools and parent-teacher associations should also be given the autonomy to discuss and make a decision on the best learning method, according to their tailored needs," the committee said.

The issue of heavy school bags remains unsolved despite being highlighted and discussed for many years.

In 2016, a letter purportedly sent out by a clinic in Kuala Lumpur had gone viral after it claimed that there have been many cases of school students developing scoliosis as a result of carrying heavy school bags.

This has prompted the Health Ministry to issue a denial, saying that heavy school bags had not contributed to scoliosis cases, as reported by Berita Harian.

In 2018, the then Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid and his deputy P Kamalanathan had both spoken about solving the problem. This includes issuing a new guideline to schools.

However, Mahdzir also said it will take time to solve the issue and expected that it would persist until schools fully adopt digital learning.

After Harapan took power later the same year, Maszlee as the education minister then had announced a task force to look into ways to reduce the weight of school bags.