The Education Ministry on Monday issued new directives to schools to not give homework to students of classes 1 and 2 ensure that the weight of schoolbags does not exceed a certain limit.
According to the official order, the education ministry has "instructed all the states and Union Territories to formulate guidelines to regulate the teaching of subjects and weight of school bags in accordance with the Government of India instructions".
As per these instructions, which the schools have been asked to comply with, institutions cannot assign homework to students of classes 1 and 2.
"Schools should not prescribe any other subjects except language and mathematics for classes I and II and language, EVS and mathematics for classes III to V students as prescribed by the NCERT," the order said.
Students should not be asked to bring additional books, extra materials and the weight of a school bag should not exceed the prescribed limit, the order added.
The weight of school bags for students of classes 1 and 2 should not exceed 1.5 kg, while the school bag of students of class 3 to 5 should weigh between 2 kg to 3 kg.
The school bag of students of classes 6 and 7 should not be more than 4 kg, while weight of school bags of classes 8 and 9 students should not be above 4.5 kg. The school bag of a class 10 student should not weigh above 5 kg, the order said.