The Rajasthan Government has decided to do away with heavy school bags for students by compiling four chapters of all subjects will be compiled into one book.
The State School Education Minister, Govind Singh Dotasara said that the Government is introducing an experiment in one school in every district to reduce the weight of school bags by making one book comprising four chapters of each subject.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Dotasara said that the government would change the curriculum in the next session based on a report by educationists as per the requirement of the students and not the political parties.
According to the move, four chapters of all subjects will be compiled into one book, so that the students have to carry only one book for two months and another for the next two months.
The idea is to bring down bag weight by making the students carry only those books that are taught on that particular day.
“We will give them spare textbooks, and they will provide the new books to students of one school in every district on an experimental basis. We will then study the change, its benefits or problems due to it. If students and parents react positively to the experiment, we will extend it to all schools in the state,” he added.
The execution of the idea has begun and the new books shall be available to the respective schools soon. The minister assured that the committees of educationists have been formed to suggest changes in the curriculum.
“The former education minister told department officials in a workshop at Shiksha Sankul that the textbooks should be on the lines of Vidya Bharti, an affiliate of the RSS. They wanted RSS curriculum in the schools. We cannot push our ideology through textbooks into the children’s minds. It was a corrupt practice. We will keep textbooks out of politics,” Dotasara told the media.
More English Medium Schools
After setting up 33 English medium schools, the Ministry now looks forward to opening up more English medium schools in 167 blocks which neither have a Vivekanand Model School nor a Rajasthan Board English Medium School. They also wish to open one in each block but not in blocks where Vivekanand model schools are functioning.
“There’s been a rush for admission to English mediums schools. This means there’s a demand for government schools; we only need to live up to people’s expectations. Government schools face two problems: one, they lack subject teachers and second, there is a problem with infrastructure. We are working on both,” the education minister said.
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