No more than 10% of the student’s weight. This is the weight limit for a satchel, set by National Education in a circular dated 2008. But in reality, the bags are always heavier.
To raise awareness of a problem that is far from new, the parents of Joffre college students have weighed the school bags during the week of March 28, every morning at the start of classes. And young people don’t have to be asked to queue. Adil, for example, is in 6th grade. He only has one hour of class that morning. His bag is 5 kilos, he is 35… It therefore carries 14% of its weight. “Initially, I had only taken my French thingssays Adil. But I thought I was going to be bored all the time, so I took my drawing stuff too. It added two kilos to me, something like that.”
Always heavier for the 6th
A school bag made 1.5 kg empty, “since you need a diary, a kit, a liaison book anyway”explains Fabienne Durand, from FCPE 34. Add to that the manualsoften voluminous, then the notebooks and the personal belongings of the pupils: the weight rises quickly, and it is seen all the more in the 6th grade, who have a smaller size.
– Sarah Caland
These weighings have taken place 3 times since 2018 at Joffre College, and since the first figures, several measures have been put in place to limit the weight of school bags. “In 6th grade, at the start of the school year, each head teacher has one hour of class life devoted to how to make his schoolbag, details Sandrine Lassalle, president of the local Fcpe council of the establishment. “What do I put in it, how do I carry my school bag, etc. This allows students to bring only what is necessary. In the supply lists, teachers have a box that allows them to say if they want a book for two or if the book stays at home. It also allows you to act on the weight of the school bag.
Accelerate awareness
Students still struggle to lighten their bags. Louise arrives in the morning with a 9 kg bag, i.e. nearly 20% of its weight. But for her, all she has inside is “essential”. This is the dual role of these weights: collect data to precisely quantify the phenomenon, but also to oblige pupils, parents, teachers to become aware of the weight of the bags. “We say it’s heavy, it’s heavy… But how heavy is it? That’s the question I asked myself, explains Fabienne Durand. With the figures, we can act on the problem. And awareness comes naturally. We don’t moan just to moan.” Over a week these are up to 1000 bags which can be weighed.
After the initiatives put in place at the Joffre college, the Fcpe presented its figures to the departmental authorities and hopes to be able to organize bag weighing operations in ever more establishments in the four corners of the Hérault.