School bags to get lighter from next academic session in Telangana

State government approves reduction of paper thickness in State syllabus books

Hyderabad: School textbooks of State syllabus will get thinner and lighter, and so will be the bags from the next academic session.

With growing concerns over the strain that school children endure on their shoulders with heavy bags, the School Education Department has reduced the paper thickness in the textbooks from 90 grams per square metre (GSM) to 70 GSM. Similarly, the thickness of the cover page of each textbook has been brought down from 250 GSM to 200 GSM.

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Based on the proposal by the School Education Department, the State government has given a nod for reduction of the paper thickness that will lighten the school bags by 25 per cent and 30 per cent depending on the class.

As per the new dimensions, Class I English medium textbooks will weigh 1.408 kgs, which is 583 grams less in comparison with this academic year textbooks whose paper thickness is 90 GMS, while the cover page thickness is 250 GSM. The six Class V textbooks will now weigh 494 grams less with present weight being 1.759 kgs. Similarly, due to reduction of paper thickness, weight of Class X English medium textbooks has come down by 1.183 kgs.

Apart from the weight of textbooks, the decision will also reduce the raw paper requirement by 3,000 metric tonnes. This year, the Government Textbook Printing Press has estimated 8,000 metric tonnes of raw paper as against 11,000 metric tonnes in the previous academic year. The move will also aid in saving Rs 30 crore to Rs 40 crore on the raw paper procurement for which Rs 150 crore was spent during academic year 2023-24.

The decision aligns with the contemporary debate on reducing undue impact on the environment, by reducing the usage of tonnes of raw paper material. Earlier, as the textbook pages were easily getting torn, the department raised the thickness, which also increased the bag weight of the school children.

For the next academic session, a total of 1.90 crore textbooks will be distributed to students studying in government and local body schools under the free component. The department is making efforts to ensure availability of part-I textbooks at district points on or before April 30 and hand them over to students before the commencement of the academic year and part-II in the month of July.

Bilingual textbooks to aid students

With English medium of instruction being introduced for Class X in government and local body schools from next academic year, students will receive bilingual textbooks. These textbooks will help non-English medium students transition to English medium.

Content on each page will be available in Telugu and English languages or English and Urdu languages as mirror images. The previous BRS government had introduced English medium of instruction in all government schools in a phased manner.

The textbooks for all classes will come with QR codes that will enable students to view and self-learn lessons just by scanning codes printed on textbooks using smartphones. Each QR code on a lesson comes embedded with one or more videos/visuals that will help students understand the concept in the particular subject.