While the burden of overweight school bags weigh heavily on the shoulders of schoolchildren, a political group is lobbying to have the load reduced.
The Democratic Alliance For The Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) says the Education Department's Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) is filling the school bags of primary students with extra heavy books.
The TOC, whose main aim is to make learning more enriching by relating it to daily life, now covers a large majority of Primary One students. In 1995, only 76 out of Hong Kong's 860 primary schools (8.8 per cent) had joined the TOC. This year the number had risen to 526.
According to DAB figures, 83.9 per cent of primary students carry bags that are over the standard 2.91 kilograms per bag. There has been a slight increase in student numbers, compared with 71.2 per cent last year. The average weight of a school bag is 43.6 per cent heavier than the standard.
When the DAB compared the weight of TOC Chinese textbooks with the usual ones, it was found that the TOC books were heavier. An average TOC book weighed 850 grams while a non-TOC text weighed 310gm.
Dr Lo Chi-keung, DAB's Health Affairs Committee convenor, pointed out that TOC texts had more pictures and exercises, hence the extra weight.
