We need laws protecting students from heavy loads

It is sad to see that nothing is being done by the Government to protect Ireland's future generations. Not only are our children being saddled with NAMA, toxic loans, future high taxes and bailing out banks and the privileged few, this Government is still making children carry schoolbags that are too heavy and far exceed its own recommendations.

We should not be surprised as this attitude is typical of the present Education Minister Mary Coughlan and her predecessors. They bury their heads in the sand and hope if they ignore the problem it will go away. But if anything, it is here for a very long time.

We are coming to the end of another school year, and one question still hangs over all these students: how heavy is the schoolbag they are lifting and is it causing damage to their back and spine?

More importantly, is anybody going to do anything to help and protect these students?

This author published a survey in May 2006 which investigated the weight of schoolbags carried by first year secondary school students. The survey was conducted in three schools among 80 students, all of whom were carrying schoolbags that were too heavy.

Too heavy by what standard? What's the allowed limit a student should lift?

A Government Working Group Report in 1998 recommended that 12-year-olds should only be lifting a maximum of 3.7kg. It went on to state that 17-year-old females should be lifting up to a maximum 5.5 kg and 17-year-old males a maximum of 6.2 kg.

Of the 80 students who participated in the latest survey, not one 12-year-old was lifting the recommended weight. The average weight carried by this age group was 11.8 kg.

This means the 12-year-old students were carrying 8.1 kg over the Government's recommended guidelines.

All the older students were also carrying schoolbags that far exceeded the weights recommended by the 1998 report.

Under the 1989 Health Safety & Welfare Act, all employees must have, by law, manual-handling training given to them by their employers. No such legislation exists to protect students from lifting schoolbags that are too heavy.

How is it that we can have legislation to protect workers but we don't protect our children?

It is a fact that 30pc of the adult population suffer from back injuries. Surely it can be concluded that some of this damage occurs at an early age from heavy schoolbags?

This situation did not develop over night and will not be solved over night either, but we have to start making some effort to protect the students.

A detailed investigation and implementation is needed and it will only come about if this Government is put under pressure to act. That will only happen if there is a combined effort from teachers, schools and parents to say: "That's it. We have had enough. We want something done and we want it done now".

The minister needs to call together the teachers' unions, the publishers and the National Parents Council and come up with a formula that educates our children and protects them from long-term back and spine damage.

Michael Lynch's full report is available on the National Parents' Council (post primary) website, www.npcpp.ie