Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 459: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she plans initiatives to respond to the much publicised problem of the heavy weight of schoolbags; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30441/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Report of a working group to examine potential problems caused by the weight of schoolbags, which was presented in July, 1998, acknowledged that many of the solutions belong at local school level. One of the main recommendations of the report related to the need to heighten the awareness of the potential health hazards posed by excessively heavy schoolbags.

In this regard, my Department initiated an awareness-raising campaign by disseminating the report, with an accompanying circular, to all primary and post-primary schools.

A further circular was issued in 2005, again highlighting the potential health hazard of heavy schoolbags and outlining a range of local measures that could be adopted in order to alleviate the problem. It is a matter for each individual school to choose those measures that would be most suited to its individual needs.

My Department is aware that positive action has been taken by many schools. Actions taken by some schools consist of a range of measures, including the provision of lockers, the arrangement of the timetable into double class periods, active liaison with parents and the co-ordination of homework by subject teachers.

Apart from a small number of prescribed texts at second level, mainly in the case of language subjects, school textbooks are not approved or prescribed by my Department at first or second level. Decisions on which books to use are taken at school level.

The report of the Working Group was disseminated by the Department to the Irish Educational Publishers Association, and they were asked to include consideration of the weight of school texts in their deliberations and liaise with teachers on finding solutions to the problem. It should be pointed out that the Report did highlight that both teachers and pupils favoured the use of multi-level textbook production for ease of convenience and ease of access and cited a high demand for them.