Education Ministry suggests no homework up to class 2, regularly weigh school bags
New Delhi, Dec 9: No homework for students up to class two, providing lockers and digital weighing machines in schools, making available potable water on the premises and disallowing wheeled carrier bags are among the recommendations made by the Education Ministry in its new policy on school bags.
As per the suggestions, which are in line with the new National Educational Policy (NEP), the weight of school bag for students between classes 1-10 should not be more than 10 per cent of their body weight.
"Based on research studies conducted in this area, recommendations of international agencies about the standard weight of school bags is recommended to follow the universally accepted ratio of weight for school bag as 10 per cent of the body weight of the student across classes 1 to 10," it says.
Schools have been asked to keep a digital weighing machine on school premises and monitor the weight of school bags on a regular basis.
"Schoolbag needs to be light-weight with proper compartments, and (should) contain two padded and adjustable straps that can be squarely fit on both the shoulders. Wheeled carriers should not be allowed as it may hurt children while climbing stairs," the policy document says.
It adds, "Schools need to ensure that the facilities which are mandated for schools to provide, such as mid-day meals etc. are adequate and of good quality so that children are not carrying items, such as a lunchbox.
"It shall be the duty and responsibility of school management to provide good quality potable water in sufficient quantity accessible to all the students in the school to avoid carrying water bottle in schoolbag or reduce its size," it said.
The school or class time table needs to be made flexible, providing adequate space for sports and physical education, reading of books available in school other than textbook etc., it said.
"For selecting a textbook for children, the criterion of weight should be taken into consideration. The weight of each textbook may be printed on the textbook by the publishers, along with the Grams per Square Meter (GSM)," it said.
The policy also talks in detail about homework for students at various levels, starting with no homework for children up to Class 2, and maximum two hours of homework every day for children in Classes 9 to 12.
"As children in classes 1 and 2 are too small to sit for long hours doing homework, they need not be given any kind of homework. Rather they need to be encouraged in the class to speak about how they spent their evening at home, the games they played, the food they ate, etc," the document suggests.
Children in classes 3, 4 and 5 should be given a maximum of two hours of homework per week, it says, adding that the teacher should ask the "evening routine for every child, dinner they took the previous night -- food items, ingredients, their likes and dislikes about different kinds of foods, who does what at their homes" for homework.
For Classes 6 to 8, the homework should be maximum of one hour a day.
"At this stage, children develop the habit of sitting little longer with concentration, so they can be given homeworks such as writing a story, an essay or an article on contemporary issues; writing an article about the problems in the locality; measures for saving electricity and petrol, among other things," the policy suggests.
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Trump sues BBC for USD 10 billion, alleges defamation over edited Jan 6 speech
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday seeking USD 10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.
It accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump's speech on January 6, 2021” in order to ”intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks USD 5 billion in damages for defamation and USD 5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The broadcaster apologised last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC's top executive and its head of news.
The speech took place before some of Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”
“They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn't say, and they're beautiful words that I said, right?" the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. "They're beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn't say that, but they used terrible words.”
The president's lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.
Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the US, given that the documentary was not shown in the country.
The lawsuit alleges that people in the US can watch the BBC's original content, including the “Panorama” series, which includes the documentary, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox or a virtual private network service.
The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds (USD 230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
