Heavy school bags: MOE to conduct detailed study, draft holistic solution

The ministry, in a written reply posted on the Parliament's official website today, said it would announce the comprehensive study on the matter.

"This is important to ensure the approach that is going to be implemented will be able to resolve the issue of heavy bags in a comprehensive manner.

"The close cooperation of all parties is important to ensure all proposals, measures and action to overcome the problem of heavy school bags can be implemented comprehensively for the beneift of students. The ministry is committed to ensuring the children's learning activities are always at a conducive level," it said.

It said this in reply to a question from Dr Maszlee Malik (PH-Simpang Renggam), who asked about the ministry's efforts to overcome the problem of heavy school bags and if it planned to change to a learning and teaching (PdP) method that is not too reliant on just text books.

The ministry, in its answer, said it had implemented studies in 1994, 2008 and 2018 to identify the cause and find solutions to the problem.

The ministry said that based on the results of the studies, various approaches had been implemented, including rearranging the timetable so that between three and four subjects could be taught daily as well as minimising the use of exercise books for each subject.