Madam, – Further to recent correspondence regarding ways of recycling used schoolbooks, I wish to point out a related campaign to remove most, if not all, schoolbooks from the schoolbag.
I am a secondary school teacher at CBS Charleville, Co Cork. For three years now, Transition Year students at our school have been running a project called “The Green Mile” whose objective is to get more students cycling and walking to school, as opposed to being driven (which is the present majority mode of transport) or taking the bus.
It has emerged from extensive research that the weight of the schoolbag is the single biggest disincentive to walking or cycling. A typical secondary schoolbag can weigh 20kg.
Our students have proposed a simple solution which they have communicated directly to Minister for Education, Mr Batt O’Keeffe.
When a student buys a schoolbook they should be provided with an electronic copy of that same book, whether on disc, memory card or download key. The book can then be left in the school locker, and homework or study done using the electronic copy on a home computer. The schoolbag need only contain copies, pens, pencils, etc.
We see this as a superior solution to the e-books which are being piloted in certain schools – there is no e-book which could get broken in the schoolbag, the student still has a real book on the desk at school and the student is still writing on real paper – the only proper preparation for the examinations in their present format. Any issues over possible duplication of the electronic copy of the books can easily be dealt with.
We believe that this matter should be pursued immediately by the Ministers for Education and Health.
Our students will be able to get back on their bikes and ongoing damage to children’s backs will be averted. In future years the present daily load on our young people’s backs may well be seen as a form of abuse which we have been very slow to address. – Yours, etc,