The Maharashtra education department is planning to divide textbooks in three parts and attach blank pages for using them to take down notes as part of its efforts to make schoolbags lighter, state school education minister, Deepak Kesarkar, announced.
Kesarkar said that his department is working to reduce the weight of bags of schoolchildren. “The textbooks will be divided into three parts, but that will not bring down the weight of bags as notebooks will still have to be carried,” he said.
The minister further said that this step will make studying convenient for students. “We are contemplating that textbooks which we are dividing in three parts… if we add pages for writing and attach them to the textbook, then it will be very convenient. They (students) can refer to it and take notes and duplication will be avoided. This will help reduce the weight of bags,” Kesarkar said.
According to the official statement, the education department is in the process of taking a decision in this regard.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Kesarkar announced that the state government will come up with a policy to revive night schools, improve the quality of education and review and upgrade their syllabus within the next two months. The government will present it before the legislature in its next session, Kesarkar said in the state legislative council on Thursday. The minister was replying to a question about filling vacancies for the post of school teachers across the state.
As per the official statement, teaching hours will be reduced from 3.5 hours per day to 2.5 hours per day with the implementation of the new policy. Further, part time teachers will be allowed to teach classes in night schools, the minister had said.
With inputs from PTI
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