Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Friday expressed hope that young students in the city would no longer have to carry schoolbags loaded with books as the city government prepares to install lockers in more than 5,000 classrooms over the next three years.
Starting from this year, the city government is to budget NT$1.2 billion (US$38.3 million) for the policy to install lockers in 5,400 classrooms, Chiang said, adding that he hopes students in elementary and junior-high schools in the city would not have to carry schoolbags any heavier than one-eighth of their body weight.
The policy would target elementary schools first, while lockers would be placed in the classrooms of selected junior-high schools from next year, the Taipei Department of Education said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Data compiled by the city government showed that the maximum average weight of first and second-graders’ schoolbag’s in Taipei is 3.48kg, third and fourth-graders’ is 4.56kg and fifth and sixth-graders’ is 5.38kg,
representing a decrease of 5.17, 0.22 and 1.28 percent respectively compared with 2019.
Addressing concerns that a schoolbag weight reduction could be realized given that many students attend after-school programs or tutoring centers, Chiang said that teachers should tell students to leave unneeded textbooks at school and to fill their water bottles when they arrive at school.
Meanwhile, Taipei Department of Education Commissioner Tang Chih-min (湯志民) on Friday encouraged teachers to reduce the amount of homework they give students, adding that teachers should also give more interactive homework, rather than just written assignments.
The department said it would continue to ask schools to weigh students’ schoolbags and ask parents to help teach their children to only have necessary items in them.
However, the efficacy of such measures is questionable given that the city government has been promoting the idea for more than two decades.
In a meeting with Taipei’s
elementary school principals late last month, Tang raised the issue of reducing the weight of students’ schoolbags and offered similar advice.
However well intended, progress is hampered by the fact that even if students were to receive less homework, the space in their schoolbags would be filled with homework from tutoring centers, Association of Taipei’s Elementary School Principals president Chang Su-hua (張素花) said.
In other words, the cooperation of parents is required, added Chang, who is the principal of Shuanglian Elementary School.
Chen Ching-yi (陳清義), principal of Yanping Elementary School, said he observed that more students were bringing items such as roller skates, snake boards and building blocks to school, which suggests at least some of the weight comes from students’ extracurricular activities.
Therefore, it is inadequate if it is only schools that endorse the policy, Chen said, adding that there is a need for greater parental understanding and cooperation from tutoring centers.
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