24 Jan 2017, 12:08
24 January 2017
The Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs will tomorrow meet 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.
The meeting will commence at 10.00am in Committee Room 1 tomorrow, Wednesday, 25 January 2017.
Committee Chairman Jim Daly TD, said “The weight of a child’s school bag can have very real and very detrimental physical effects if the contents, consisting of books and material required for extracurricular activities, is in excess of what they can ably carry. While measures have been proposed by the Department to offset the need to carry unnecessarily heavy bags, it is down to the schools themselves to decide how best to implement these measures. These proposed measures include providing lockers where books can be stored, better management of timetables so as to limit the amount of subjects per day and a coordinated approach to what material is needed to be brought home to complete homework.”
“Tomorrow the Committee will have a chance to hear, first hand, the effect of excessively weighty schoolbags from the National Parents Council Primary and the National Parents Council Post Primary on how they believe this issue can be alleviated. We will also hear from Dr. Sara Dockrell, assistant professor in the discipline of physiotherapy, on what factors contribute to musculoskeletal discomfort and what, if any, can be deemed a ‘safe’ weight for a student’s schoolbag.”
Committee proceedings can be viewed live here.
Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.
Ends