Today picked up my daughter's school bag & almost broke my
back. It is HEAVY. I mean really heavy. We keep on talking about reducing the load on our children's back but no on has any idea on how to do it.
I have an Idea. Nothing to do with the telecom operator. If we take out all the text books & leave just the note books in the bag it is considerably lighter. So the challenge is to make the bag text book free. People have tried various methods in the past. Leave text book in school..not a feasibility as kids require to refer to books at home too. Have a school copy and a home copy - too costly solution.
My recommendation for Smriti Irani:
Talk
to companies like Amazon. Ask them to give Kindle like devices (with no backlight) with a
certain mechanism in it which allows only Govt authorized books to
be downloaded. Maybe the text books also can be installed at every school. Misuse of the device will be not possible. Let us see the advantages due to this:
1) Multi Kilos of books removed in favor of around 200g of a device
2) Number of books to be printed drops leading to reduction of trees cut & help improving of environment.
3) Any mistake in books can be corrected easily and updated in children's device easily.
4) Better than tablets as there will be no strain of eyes of children.
5) Book publishers will prefer as every book sold is a total profit.
6) Device makers will have a ready made market of people who would prefer to upgrade to the regular/actual device.
7) Huge number of devices will help in ensuring that the device maker can cut costs and provide each device at a lower cost but still make huge profit.
8) The overall cost of Device+books over the number of years will work out to be very cheap compared to the actual paper books.
9) The Govt may fund it for Govt owned school. Seeing school children using such devices will encourage others to also join school to get these devices.
10) Rich Schools/parents can easily fund this for their wards
11) If any child forgets the device one day, extra copy can easily be given from the school.
There are some other points to consider too:
1) Charging points - Maybe all schools can have points in every bench. With the electrification of villages going on this may not be a problem in future.
2) Stolen devices - That's why I prefer having a device where loading of books is controlled. Without the installer option this device will become useless for others.
3) Damages/lost - Some amount of damage/loss have to be accepted.
Maybe others may have more pro/con points, but I feel that the important task of reducing the weight the kids carry will be achieved.
Please comment.
