More than half of all students' school bags are overweight, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) said yesterday, calling for urgent measures to make school bags less heavy.

DAB measured the weight of 26 students (14 boys and 12 girls) and their school bags to examine just how heavy students' school bags are.

The survey reveals the average weight of school bags is 4.4 kg. The heaviest school bag is 8 kg.

Standard weight of school bags should be 2.5 kg, or not more than 10 per cent of students' weight, said Anthony Wong, member of Environmental and Hygiene Committee of Eastern District Council.

The survey found that 61.5 per cent of students' school bags are overweight.

In the most serious case, a primary 2 boy weighing 25 kg carries a 4.5 kg school bag, which means the school bag is 80 per cent heavier than the acceptable limit.

If school bags were too heavy they would hurt children's spinal cord and affect their growth, he said.

He urged the government to introduce "electronic books" to replace traditional textbooks. Schools should buy more textbooks and put them at classroom for students, he added.

The main reason for students' heavy school bags is textbooks were much heavier than before, said Tong Chung-fan, non-official member of Education Commission.

Tong, who is a S6 and 7 Mathematics teacher himself, said to compete with each other, textbook publishers had used heavy papers for better printing quality and added more papers to enhance textbooks' content.

Besides, every subject includes many supplementary materials apart from textbooks, such as supplementary exercises and solution guides. This increases the weight of students' school bags, he said.

Solution to the problem requires cooperation from all fronts, he said.

He asked the government to scrap or combine some subjects, as children could not learn so many subjects in a school year. For example, subjects like Geography and EPA could be combined into one subject as humanities.

Schools could arrange students to learn different subjects at different times, he said. For example, students could learn Chinese History in F1, and History in F2.

Schools could also arrange more consecutive classes each day, as more time would be allowed for activities in class.

He asked the textbook publishers to print on thinner papers. This could reduce the weight of students' school bags as well as lower the cost of textbooks.

He said teachers should consider carefully what books students should bring to class, so that students could carry fewer books from home.

It was not the right time to implement "electronic books" at the moment, he said. There are too many technical difficulties if they are used, and they are costly too, he added.

Raymond Jao, chairman of Federation of Parent Teacher Association of Hong Kong Eastern District, said the government should reassess curriculum to reduce the number of supplementary textbooks and exercises.

Schools should introduce more measures and adjustments. He felt frustrated to see his children carrying more books than needed because they would be penalized by teachers if they forgot to bring the books.

He suggested students to finish supplementary exercises at school, so that they would not need to bring extra books home.

(HK Edition 09/09/2006 page2)