Son : Mom…..my bag is so heavy….
Mom : Eh, fren, you live next door to the school, be thankful already. Your school mates have to walk don’t know how far and some have to take a bus somemore.
Son : You know hor, one of my friend school bag strap already koyak today. Soooooo heavy….
Mom : Eh, complain also cannot help. All your brothers, all your schoolmates, every kid also must carry.
Son : But why they make it so heavy? Why need so many books?
Mom : Somemore hor, you are lucky you are not in Chinese school. If not lagi chialat.
Son : You tell them lah, don’t give us so many school books and so heavy books.
Mom : You ask all your school friends to write to the Education Minister lah.
Son : How to write?
Mom : Aiyah, in that case, I blog it better. Come, come we take photos.
My eleven years old (yet to be 12, only in Nov 2008) weighs this much. About 90 pounds. He is lucky he is of the average size. There are some really thin and scrawny kids who really struggle with their school bags.
The school bag weighs 11 pounds. (I know we use metric system but in pounds more dramatic mah) This is after he has pick and choose only the necessary books to bring to school.
These are just part of the workbooks the students need to buy. I think we need to spend RM50 just on workbooks. The textbooks are given free by our very *generous* Government.
I won’t complain about the heavy school bag. There is enough complaints already so what’s the point of talking about it? I had my share of worries when my eldest son went to Primary One. He had to take a school bus all the way from Air Itam to Bayan Baru and normally, he even had to run to catch the school bus plus fight off the crowds to get on the bus. That was like eons ago as he is now already 18 years old. This same problem exists today. I am still seeing poor little thin kids struggling with their school bags and risking their lives getting on moving buses.
Sad, huh? I am thankful we got a home next to the school and I am at home the whole day to layan the tired kids who got home from school.
Schools related stories :
Hot gucci mamas
Kids travelling on public buses
Anyway…..I know all these heavy bags, tight schedule and etc helps to build characters for our kids. But seriously, those of us who are from the much earlier generation who didn’t have to endure such heavy bags and so many crazy co-curriculum activities didn’t do too badly too.
kesian kan??? like carrying a peket of rice pergi balik sekolah everyday liddat.
luckily i don’t have to carry a large knapsack to school during my generation lol
lilian,
i gave some tricks to megat and his classmates i.e. for text books hor… everyone don’t bring all the text books, but they could share instead. that means if one day, they have 6 subjects to learn, so they wld bring 3 text books only. but must discuss ler of who wanna bring what book kan? like that can ar? but for workbooks and exercise books, we cant help it.
my time i kena carry all the books also. that’s why backbone abit crooked liao. i think i older than you. my side quite kiasu wan.
Schools are for Ah Kuas.
Aiyooo.. Kesian.
I’m a product of the KBSR and KBSM system. Our backbones are slightly crooked because our textbooks were damn heavy but our brains were light. Kekeke…
Every year, I see that our kids are slowly becoming turtles. Their bags are actually bigger than them. I’ve seen some Std 1 pupils who carry their own weight in their bag….
*pening*… Maybe our minister thinks that if you carry more books, you are more clever??? 😆
Lilian, buy your kid another Sony Vio that is only 1.5kg that will contain all his books and also Wikipedia inside also.
I wonder if they can implement a locker system in school. But knowing them, they are too kiamsiap to do it la.
“….heavy bags, tight schedule …”
So much of stress and pressure.
My Buku Sains and P.Tempatan books are not thick ones.
Those education days are happier, more creative thinking needed to make up for lack of resources.
There are teachers who plan for their convenience. My sons, 5 and 3 are left handed. They are going to chinese school soon. I am being told to make them write right handed. I told the teachers, leave them, let them learn naturally. Tapi katanya senang ajar. Cikgu sudah jadi kurang ajar.
Another teacher said she need to reschedule her class coz son preparing for exam. Huh? Her son is also my problem? I told my PR Manager (husband), we would stop send both to her class. Just too much hassle to reschedule our whole week of life. Cikgu sudah hilang moral dan tataterib pengajar.
What happened to the lockers that they say they going to build a few years back? No such thing already ar?
it’s total madness. i’m glad i had my fren’s dad to drive us to school, stopped right in front of the school every morning. and after school, my mom will pick us up right in front of the school too. how thankful for that, compare to those who have to carry the burden behind and get on the bus! or squeeze with other students in those.. err.. cars or van used by aunties to ferry kids…
Changing lifestyle mah. So when they growth older, joing N-S, they don’t have to worry about “unfit” to join the camp-to-the-hell.
i was there before..hav to carry a heavy bag to school and that time still small and short..almost fall down ler.luckily that time easybag is very popular..u know..the bag with wheels..lol..
anyway,its not like the ministry of edu will care la..so many yrs parents complain bout heavy bags but got take any actions??no..nothing..what also takde..till now also need to carry heavy loads of books..so what if ministry bagi free textbooks??no point ler..bags still heavy and yet they havent do anything about the heavy bags issue.
I wont be suprised to see our generations getting shorter ler..
sue me – Nowadays, they break the textbooks into two parts. So, first part of the year, bring book A, second part, book B. Not much lighter but heh, one has to spend double for the books because the book broken into two is not half the price but twice the price.
moo_t – For those obese kids, it is good exercise for them. And we do have a huge weight problems kids in primary school. But there are so many poor, thin kids also.
aaron – You ho mia lah, no need to rush like those other kids. I see them so kesian oni.
melvin – Build locker gahmen no subsidise cos tender not ‘profitable’ mahhhhh…And if want to ask parents to chip in, they tok 3 tok 4 so very hard lah.
agnes – Wuah, kena change left hander to right hander oso can?
giddy tigress – They spend money build NCER, ECER dunno for what lah, basic necessity no money.
steven – You remember last time they tok about going book-less, and each kid gets a PC? Now hor, even in the school, they don’t even have that many PCs for the kids to use lah. Somemore ask us parents to pay $10 per mth for PC class. Ptui, I told my kid tell them sendiri belajar. We refused to pay.
angie – Yalor, see those small kids really kesian wan, somemore some must climb up three flights of steps. Nay, my #2 son was a small kid and he oso suffered enough lor. Some kids fell down stairs due to off balance. Lucky now big and tall jor.
terence – Not funny and not relevant.
mistipurple – Hahaha, I diff gen one.
kuE – The teachers all garang wan, no bring book kena whack lagi.
anthraxxxx – Once hit secondary school, they are much bolder and they leave the books in their desk. But primary kids sked teacher so have to bawak.
sooi2 – Yalor. And I haven’t gone to the part of what they study yet. Muahahar..later masuk ISA, anak kenot pergi sekolah, so I have to shut up liao.
*ZIPS MOUTH*
still remember when I was in std 6 that time…fuyoh…so many books to buy and bring
one book after the other…non-stop
school bag was really heavy
but what to do…school require us to bring
if didn’t bring kena rotan one u noe
chinese school mah
only i can say to your child is either use a bag with wheels or make sure that the support is sufficient , eg. the straps must not be too long
other than that…tahan loh….coz form 1 even more books
Blame the teachers who ask the students to buy all kinds of workbooks (and get the 10% discount…masuk pocket!)…and blame those who insist that the students have a notebook for grammar, another for vocab, one more for comprehension, one for composition etc…etc…etc…and never tell the students what she’ll be doing and what to bring on which day! Blame the school inspectors who will want to see lots and lots of written work as THEY think that constitutes a good teacher (Bloody fools!! What’s intheir heads more important!!)! Blame the students who never bring the books…so the teachers also get fed up! Blame the students who never open their bags and take all the books to school and back every day!…Sigh! Thank God I’ve retired and got out of all this madness!!! My daughter is now in a teacher training institute and if you think it’s going to be much better, think again!! It’s like from the frying pan into the fire!!!
STP – The handsome headmaster is going to make it compulsory for the students to wear belts. Standard ones the school provides (not foc). Oh did I tell you that there was this one time I shoot an email to the handsome headmaster that their singlet and shorts for sports are too big? They only produce XL size and my son is XS. So, I got tulan and shoot an email to him that the teacher forcing my 13 yrs old son to wear is causing a huge dent in the self-esteem ‘cos the pants can drop! (no smaller size than XL). Mr. Handsome headmaster replied my mail next morning before 7.30 am and told me it is fine not to wear the standard singlets and shorts the school forced on them. Heh.
Good for u…! Maybe that handsome headmaster of urs…wanted to peep-peep at little boys’ you-know-what, who knows???!!! If not, why ask them to wear big, big size one? Maybe encouraging them to grow fat like suituapui? LOL! Only XL kah? Must be rejects lah…he buys cheap-cheap, sell to students and make huge profit to contribute to his retirement fund???!!! U ask him…buy belt from school, he gets how much commission?? Enuf for him to retire in Australia or not? Many schools don’t allow belts in school…nanti the boys use for fighting, stangling,hanging etc…etc…etc….baru big headache!
PS Why ur son XS leh? U no feed him kah? See…you owes eat all the food, like dat lah!!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
buy those bag with trolley wheels for yr son lor…
Lilian, agree… karrrptuiii! that teacher only know how to earn RM10 from students on teaching them computer and also didn’t even teach them how to earn money. If you teach is different dee. You can teach and guaranty them to earn RM10000 per month. LOL
last time I went to school i brought no book, biar kene rotan, i dont care. im not goin to carry stupid books which later i dont use.
I only carry a 5 pieces of those brown book. the rest, i dont need it. pretty stupid actually. In america, we go school carrying lunch boxes and thats all.
When I was 9 years old, my schoolbag weighed 6-freaking-kilograms! No kidding! I went to a Convent in Tambun (Ipoh) and in the late 1980s, the school had morning and afternoon sessions, and we weren’t allowed to leave our books under the table, so kesian!
Ha, the same thing written!!
Frankly, to tell all of you guys, this is call Malaysian attitude. That kind of giving empty promise but never take practical actions 1.
When I was in Form 3 Education Minister visited my school. I went up face to face with him and voiced out the heavy schoolbag problem. This in turn surprised my principal (I remembered that was the very first day she became the school head).
After that.. the education ministry instructed my school to submit a report. Then my schoolbag was weighted with 2 of my other friends’ for one week. After that my school principal and I were interviewed by press.
All of us knows that ergonomics aren’t properly taken care of. Even occupational safety aren’t strictly adhered to. Politicians asyik nak makan suap saja. You know Chua Soi Lek has openly admitted his sexual misconduct and that spells the end of his political career. Others may be doing the same thing but they’re never revealed. The acts are hidden behind the scenes. Our society is so hypocritical. Who knows the next scandal will befall who?
Nak blaja biasa la
ptut besyukur negara aman dpt blaja
bwk beg brat pn mslah ke
nak berjy
nak sribu dy xnk sribu dlih
bwk ikot jdual la
n cooperate la teacher
tnyer utk next lesson buku aper yg perlu bwk
jgn main bwk je