Chennai, May 30: It is extremely painful to see, little children who have just started school being burdened with unnecessary home works and heavy school bags. Taking note of the issue, Madras High Court has directed the Centre to instruct the State governments and Union Territories to make sure that no school in the country, irrespective of the educational board it was affiliated to, assigns homework for students in Classes I & II students, in tune with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) recommendations.

According to a report in the Hindu, Justice N. Kirubakaran in his order has also said- no school should force upon children any subject other than language and mathematics in Classes I and II. Also, the only additional subject for Classes III-V should be environmental science. Court further said that schools that fail to abide the new rules on homework and the number of subjects should be disaffiliated.

The court asked the state government to ensure that the weight of each schoolbag is not more than 10 percent of the weight of a child.

Justice Kirubakaran as quoted in a Telegraph report said, "The doctors say that on an average a five or six-year-old needs about 11 hours of sleep each night and if they leave for school early in the morning, they should have an early bedtime."

Court has further asked CBSE to set up flying squads to check homework violations. Centre and NCERT will have to file a report in 4 weeks.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 30, 2018 11:24 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).