25 Jan 2017, 16:47
25 January 2017
The Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs today met with representatives from the National Parents Council Primary, the National Parents Council Post Primary and Dr. Sara Dockrell, Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin, to examine issues relating to the weight of schoolbags.
Following the meeting, Committee Members agreed that this is a matter that must be tackled and agreed to undertake a body of work in the area with the aim of finding a resolution that delivers results for students.
Committee Chairman Jim Daly TD said “At our meeting today we heard from stakeholders that young students carrying unnecessarily heavy school bags may lead to acute back and shoulder pain and that the previously proposed guidelines are now complicated by the growing levels of childhood obesity. This is an issue that has been discussed at length down through the years without serious, enforceable action being taken in bringing about effective change. At our meeting today, Members were in agreement that we have a duty to examine the issue in full with a view to finding a practicable solution.”
“Since the expert working group on the Weight of Children’s Schoolbags reported in 1998, guidelines have been there for schools to use in alleviating the issue. These guidelines, however, are not achieving the desired result and we must now examine why this is the case and what can be done. We will meet again on the matter next month with the aim of identifying how best to bring about this change, be it regulation or legislation perhaps, and set out our plan to agree positive action on the matter, finally.”
Ends