Can do parents perceive the schoolbag problems?

The status of children on health has a significant effect on the future health of society.  Thus, monitoring the health status of society is essential along with education and prevention.  No doubt, the school environment should be considered as a wide set of stressors in the human ecology field.  Good health status can be influenced by changing lifestyles, which is obviously lead to quality of life. The more closer to the lifestyle the higher percentage of correct attitudes.   

There has always been a talk on the problem of overloading children with too heavy schoolbags and do the parents know about the effect of the mass of carried school supplies on body posture, health status and how is the importance of physical fitness?

There has been a lot of questions relating to child to carry overloading bags to school.  The pertinent ones are:

• The Weight of a schoolbag carried to school?
• The child's schoolbag will be carried -- by the accompanying person, by the child in his or her hand, on a bicycle?
• The child has a faulty posture while carrying the schoolbag?
• Is child healthy in general?
• Child spend how many hours on physical culture?
• Prefer a tablet instead of a schoolbag?

It is assumed that a four-kilogram mass of school supplies carried by their children.  This suggests greater concern for child’s [boy/girl] body posture and their health also.  Most of them prefer to commute to school by themselves only, though some of the parents do accompany them but the margin is little. 

It has been observed that poor awareness of the role of physical fitness among boys, girls and parents.  Thus, it is important to have cognitive skills and correct body posture.  Probably, 3 and 5 hours per week spent on improving physical fitness.

Al  lot of debates are going on overloading children with too heavy schoolbags and how it can be seriously affected them.  It leads to various dysfunctions, including the spine also.  The postural defects among children and adolescents from primary and secondary schools are seen and aware of the negative impact of the faulty posture.  One should have knowledge on the prevention of postural defects and how it entrusts negative impact of too much weight of a schoolbag on posture.

In the 1980s, it was recommended that schoolbags should weigh less than 11% of the pupil’s body weight [5], whereas orthopaedic doctors suggested that its mass should not exceed 10% [6]. Currently, it is recommended to carry schoolbags lighter than 10% of body weight [5]. However, many students carry heavier schoolbags [5,7].

Researchers demonstrated that carrying a schoolbag heavier than a pupil’s body weight significantly affects body statics :

• If the schoolbag is heavier than 10% of body weight, it may reduce the forced expiratory volume
• A schoolbag reaching 15% of body weight causes a change in gait speed if the pupil’s body weight is [9]
• A weight higher than 20% leads to significant changes in gait patterns if the pupil’s body weight is [10]
• A schoolbag weighing 15% body weight naturally affects the body’s moves if the pupil’s body weight is [11]

Whilst it is interesting to note that some researchers suggested that there is no evidence that these deformations resulted from carrying a large mass of schoolbag.

Now the concept of child’s learning has changed a lot.  The conventional learning only with a tablet or conventional learning at school and learning at home with a tablet or tablet as supplementation of conventional learning.

However, it is noticed that a few parents allow the possibility of conventional learning at home and learning with tablet at school, but most of the parents are not accepted learning only with a tablet.  The parents are of the opinion the learning method should be physically carried on with a child’s schoolbag and are consent with material and methods.

Thus, it is important that parents should know the health status of their children.  They believe that the child will carry a four-kilogram schoolbag, will learn conventionally [without a tablet] and spent about 2 hours on improving physical fitness. 

Whenever we are talking about the schoolbags concerned with children, the two things are going with sync i.e. body posture and physical activity.

No doubt the physical fitness is a core factor in the prevention of static postural disorders, keeping in mind the [child’s overloading with too heavy schoolbags] and it is kind of orientation of the children's lifestyle.