Fifth graders worry about heavy bags, their health, safety

Questelles Government School

Prompted by an article that appeared in our Grade 5 reading text, we the grade 5 students of the Questelles Government School are of a similar view and are worried about the impact the heaviness of our book bags/backpacks is having on our health.{{more}} Sometimes we use all the books, and getting home from school can be difficult for us. Our parents worry about the weight of our bags and often have to leave their jobs just to come to assist us going home from school. Do you know that they could be fired for aiding their child? So, please help us find a solution to this problem.

Those of us who live at Station Hill, Rillan Hill, Carco, Francois, Green Hill and Dubois find it difficult to walk up or down these steep hills with heavy book bags, especially knowing the state of disrepair of the road network. When our bags are filled with books some of our mothers can’t lift them.

We are suffering from neck problems, back problems shoulder and muscle problems and many of us have bruises from these bags. Other students have also complained about their heavy bags, confirming that these can be dangerous to our health and safety. Online resources further lend support to the fact that this problem also affects students overseas. We are certain that doctors are in agreement with us, because a few of their clients come from our population. Imagine all these children with this problem with their heavy book bags; in a few years we will have a nation with vertebrae concerns.

We make the following recommendations to those concerned: (i) build cupboards/lockers in the school for the children to put their books. (ii) create a secure place to leave books at school (iii) modify timetables, so that the heavy books are not all used on the same day (iv) provide school buses to move all students (v) now that we have netbooks, provide online text books.

Please help us correct the problem now before it gets worse.