NEWS: Taking the loads off students' back

As children and parents prepare for the new school year, a perennial issue crops up again – heavy school bags.
Students checking out an e-book launched by the Terengganu State Government. Apart from doing away with heavy school bags, the initiative aims to expose students to ICT.
Students checking out an e-book launched by the Terengganu State Government. Apart from doing away with heavy school bags, the initiative aims to expose students to ICT.

The issue had been much discussed and debated, with parents and academicians expressing worry over the well-being of the children, citing reports from health experts. Suggestions after suggestions had been mooted, but none could solve the problem.

Then in 2001, the Education Ministry initiated an e-book pilot project in a fresh attempt to tackle the issue of heavy school bags. The pilot involved selected schools, the bulk of which were located in rural areas. It was reported then that the e-books would be distributed to Form Four arts stream students.

Under the pilot, there were also plans to expand the use of e-books to all primary and secondary schoolchildren. That was the last heard about the project.

The fact that schoolchildren continue to carry heavy materials inside their bags only serves to suggest that the project had not taken off beyond the pilot stage.

Seven years on, the e-book came into the limelight again when the Terengganu State Government announced its plan to equip students in the State with virtual textbooks stored on Intel-powered Classmate PCs.

Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said was quoted as saying that apart from solving the problem of heavy school bags, the programme would be geared towards giving ICT exposure to students. This is a noble move, but the State needs to have a sound plan or risk suffering the same fate as those who had embarked on the e-book journey without making much headway.

The high cost of equipment and maintenance is among the challenges, but a bigger issue is to make sure that students who are accustomed to conventional textbooks are equally comfortable with the virtual version. Although they might find the e-book cool, using it as an alternative to printed textbooks in the classroom might not be appealing to some.

So, there is a need for more efforts to expand e-book usage beyond being virtual textbooks to make learning more interactive and fun. E-books have the potential of making classroom learning an interesting affair, if implemented and managed well.

And with less pain in the back, going to school might no longer be such a drag after all.