Education ministry releases guidelines for 10 bagless days for classes 6-8

To provide respite to school students between Classes 6 and 8, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has proposed 10 ‘bagless days’ to be implemented by schools across States.

In its guidelines, the NCERT has said that teachers would have to plan activities for students to learn from local vocational experts, including carpenters, gardeners, potters, and artists.

“On an average, teachers and children spend around 6 hours a day, and over 1,000 hours a year, in school. Minimum 10 days or 60 hours of the school time should be allocated to the activities for this programme,” the guidelines, which are in line with the requirements of the National Education Policy Policy Policy 2020, stated. “The child’s need to be prepared for the ‘World of Work’, and a work-centred pedagogy can be pursued with increasing complexity while always being enriched with the required flexibility and contextuality,” the guidelines added.