PETALING JAYA: To address the issue of heavy school bags, the Education Ministry will be providing lockers for pupils in double-session primary schools, starting with pupils in Years One, Two and Three this year.

       An allocation of RM37.3mil has been set aside to provide lockers for a total of 323,186 lower primary pupils from 10,662 classes, says Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin.

       The second phase of the locker initiative is expected to start in 2023, which will see the provision of lockers extended to Years Four, Five and Six pupils in double-session schools.

       "After studying the issue of heavy school bags in detail, the ministry found that the problem is critical among primary school pupils, particularly Year One to Year Three pupils.

       "This is a new approach as the Education Ministry is providing lockers to students for the first time ever.

       "However for single-session schools, students will keep books inside the desk drawers in their respective classrooms," said Radzi in a video posted to his Facebook page on Sunday (March 6).

       The locker initiative is one of the seven holistic solutions devised by the Education Ministry to overcome the issue of heavy schoolbags, which has been ongoing for almost three decades, said Radzi.

       Other measures taken to solve the issue of heavy schoolbags include the reorganisation of timetables to only three to four subjects a day and giving schools the flexibility to provide a timetable according to a weekly rotational system.

       The weekly timetable rotational system will be able to lessen the number of textbooks and activity books brought by students to school daily, said Radzi.

       The number of exercise books has also been limited to two per subject, with each exercise book not exceeding more than 80 pages, said Radzi.

       "During our visits to the schools, we found that many students were carrying more than two exercise books for one subject," he said.

       Another measure being implemented by the ministry to tackle the issue of heavy schoolbags is to limit the type of activity books and workbooks used by students.

       Radzi said students are only allowed to use the activity book provided by the Education Ministry while workbooks can only be used as reference materials outside of official teaching and learning (PdP) times.

       The ministry is also taking the approach of embracing digital textbooks by continuing to publish new textbooks in the digital format, said Radzi.

       "To date, a total of 692 titles of digital textbooks have been uploaded in the Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia (DELIMa) platform.

       "Pupils who have the device can access digital textbooks through the DELIMa platform," he said.

       Teachers are also encouraged to use a student-centred PdP approach such as thematic, modular and project-based learning, virtual lab or alternative learning, he said.

       "The ministry has also discussed with the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to allow students to attend religious classes in school uniform to reduce the items that they carry in their bag," added Radzi.

       He also expressed hopes that the initiatives outlined will be able to reduce the problem of heavy school bags, as it is a longstanding matter.

       The ministry had also in the past conducted three major studies related to the issue in 1994, 2008 and 2017 as well as taken various actions to address the issue, said Radzi.

       This included issuing a circular on the use of workbooks in primary schools in 2000 and also guidelines on dealing with heavy schoolbags in 2018 yet the problem still persisted, he said.

       "To ensure that every approach is implemented as best as possible to reduce the problem of heavy school bags, the ministry will closely monitor the implementation of all the approaches outlined.

       "The monitoring will be carried out by a task force that will periodically report on the implementation of the outlined initiatives," he said.

       He added that the ministry will also continue to increase close cooperation with parents and guardians on solving the issue, particularly in ensuring students bring the books as required by their respective schedules.

       "In addition, engagement sessions with the Parents and Teachers Association will also be enhanced," he said.