lETTER tO eDITOR cONCERNING hEAVY sCHOOL bAGS*

Dear Editor

In response to the unhealthy phenomenon that most students are carrying very heavy school bags nowadays. It is not overstated that the average weight of a Secondary three student’s school bag is 5 kg. Perhaps, some said that students are those who are responsible for the weight problem because they usually bring something unnecessary to school. I would like to share my suggestion to those related parties, such as textbook publisher, school and student.

The first thing that the textbook publishers should do is to publish their books electronically. They should computerize some information of the books, such as reference reading or exercises in order to let students use the material through computers. Therefore, the books will be lightened due to reducing the content of the books.

Secondly, they should sort their books by chapter and the books are able to be separated chapter by chapter, therefore, it is possible for students to simply bring the needed chapters to school instead of bringing the whole book. Moreover, reducing the attachment in the book by providing supplementary information online can also help lightening the weight of students’ school bag.

Schools are also an important role to help lightening the weight of school bags. Firstly, schools should provide enough lockers for students, they can store some books or stationeries in the locker and thus eliminate the weight of those stuff. Secondly, teachers should clearly remind students what are necessary to bring for school since students sometimes may confuse about what is needed for class as a result they just bring all of the books.

As a student, we can do many things to reduce the school bag’s weight. For instance, we should pack our school bag every day. By following our timetable, we would not bring anything that is unrelated to class. Finishing homework in school is also another method to minimize the weight of school bags. We can do the homework during the break; therefore the homework can be left in school locker.The problem of heavy school bag really affects the growth of students, which would damage their backbones. Textbook publishers, schools and students themselves should take responsibility and try their best to do my suggestions to prevent students from getting hurt from their heavy school bags.

k*