QUALITY education entails the holistic nurturing oflearners,including their cognitive, social, physical, and mental well-being. However, the physical and mental well-being of students is compromised as they often lack opportunities for sports and recreational events in schools in this country.Schools are often located in small buildings with hardly any space for physical activities, which can especially affect small children, and impact their physical and mental development. Another burden on their health is the heavy schoolbags they carry everyday to schoolandback.

The established threshold of schoolbag weight is 10 to 15 per cent of a child`s body mass. This is routinely ignored in schools, where the weight of schoolbags is equal to 30 to 40pc of a child`s body mass. These heavy schoolbags contribute to back pain among schoolchildren, which has been reported not just in Pakistan but across the world.

Children from the ages of 11 to 14 years usually experience a growth spurt as they enter the puberty years. This age is also an important phase of spinal growth, and a period when, as research shows, `the adolescent spine [is] less able to withstand stresses that are normal for the adult spine`. Carrying a heavy backpackinthisphase poses agreaterriskfor low back pain, which the children are likely to experience in their later lives.

Studies have also indicated that the difference in the weight of schoolbags after a schoolyearinnuences changesin the body posture negatively. Children mostly adjust the straps in a way which causes muscle imbalance. This can cause serious postural abnormalities in children.

Children whose posture is adversely affected thanks to the load of books on their backs feel physically uncomfortable; this malaise can cause them to lose interestin learningitself.It adds to their pain and stress especially in classes where the students are hardly allowed to move. Some research tells us that children spend about 50-70pc of their time sitting in class and there is hardly any physical activity during this time, rendering their bodies static. Their pain becomes severe when schools also keep them deprived of sports and physical fitness classes.

Schools mostly blame publishing houses and the education authorities for increasing curriculum standards covered in a school year, which often results in an increased number of books as well as more voluminous textbooks. Schools that teach all the required subjects daily andregularly assign homework to students compel the children to carry heavy bags each day of the school week. The heavy material of the bag itself contributes to its weight. The additional burden of lunch further increases the weight of the schoolbag and adds to the children`s labour.

There are several solutions to overcome the heavy schoolbag dilemma.

Schools must be mindful of the consequences of children carrying heavy bags and strategise in such a way that it doesn`t become a daily burden for the students. The thoughtful school administration will provide lockers for the children where they can keep their books and take home only those essential for doing their homework. Changing the classroom environment to an activityoriented one by reducing the time the students are forced to sit on chairs and benches is a viable option. It is not just about the weight of the books; the students also tend to carry their back-packs incorrectly.

It is up to the schools to educate the students to correctly carry their backpacks.

It is important to give information aboutthe necessity of maintaining a proper posture -something that the curricula can contain and teachers` programmes stress on so that instructors do not disregard the problem of bad posture, and emphasise proper movement patterns during class and playtime. Parents too need to be aware of the issue and insist that school authorities create an ergonomic premises for their children. Their role is central to influencing schools to follow recommendations for minimum schoolbag weight for their children.

Throughout the years, we have seen students suffer. Pakistan`s lawmakers should formulate laws to ease this burden on students. Standards must be established by the state for schoolbags, textbook weight, and schools` responsibility to ensure that students do not carry schoolbags that weigh more than 10 to 15pc of their body mass. KP was the first province to pass the School Bag Act in 2019, although its non-implementation is a point of concern. There is a need for serious enforcement of such rules and laws to improve the well-being of our future gener ations. • The wnter is an educationist.