PUTRAJAYA: The Education Ministry (MOE) will be providing lockers in primary schools in two phases starting this year as an approach to address the heavy school bags issue.

Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin said the first phase will involve Year One, Two and Three in schools operating in dual sessions, involving 323,186 pupils from 10,662 classes, with an estimated allocation of RM37.3 million.

The second phase, which is expected to start in 2023, will involve pupils in Year Four, Five and Six in schools operating in dual sessions.

For single-session schools, pupils will keep their books in desk drawers in their respective classrooms, he said in a statement today.

In addition, schools will have timetables with three to four subjects daily, and they will also have the flexibility to prepare timetables according to a weekly rotational system.

Radzi said exercise books will also be limited to two books per subject with each book not exceeding 80 pages.

Besides that, pupils are only allowed to use activity books provided by the MOE while workbooks can only be used as reference materials.

"Teachers are encouraged to use a student-centred teaching and learning approach, namely thematic, modular and project-based learning, virtual lab or differentiated learning," he said.

He also said that the ministry will continue producing new textbooks in the digital format and to date, a total of 692 textbook titles have been uploaded on the Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia (DELIMa) platform.

Meanwhile, Radzi said MOE is in talks with the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) to give flexibility to students to wear their respective school uniforms during KAFA school sessions.

"The ministry will closely monitor the implementation of all the approaches outlined. The monitoring will be done by a task force that will periodically report on the implementation of the initiatives to address the issue of heavy school bags," he said.

He added that MOE will continue to work closely with parents and guardians in resolving the issue, especially in ensuring that students bring along books as required in their respective timetables, and at the same time enhance engagement sessions with Parents and Teachers Associations.

-- BERNAMA