Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that every school day across Australia, school students are carrying heavy school bags on their way to and around schools and this poses a risk to the long term health of young people in Australia;

(2) acknowledges that reference sources are an important part of the curriculum and for individual courses; and

(3) encourages the Australian and state and territory governments to:

(a) replace hard copy reference books with CD and thumb drive versions of reference materials to lighten the load of students and reduce the incidences of muscular and skeletal injuries to the developing bodies of school students; and

(b) set a target timeline for the replacement of reference materials for school students.

My motion is about schoolbags—how heavy they are for Australian students and how they pose a risk to the musculoskeletal development of young people across this country—but it is also about the opportunity that technology provides. That opportunity is to convert reference materials into removable CDs, thumb drives, other media and even licensed web based access to reference materials, thereby replacing heavy textbooks. It is about tackling this problem with leadership by governments, schools and parents. All must acknowledge the challenge and see that there are ways that solutions can be found that can be done quickly and without great cost.

I was recently contacted by an uncle of a boy in year 7 in a Perth school. As he was picking his nephew up to drive him to school one day, he lifted the schoolbag and found it to be very heavy. He weighed it and found the bag to be 7.5 kilograms. Apparently, it was a heavy day but not unusual. He then asked his nephew to weigh himself, and he weighed 37 kilos. This represents a load of 20 per cent of the boy's body weight.

I know that a lot has changed since I was at school. More research has been done; backpacks are common now, unlike when I was at school. Indeed, more students carry their backpacks using both straps. That is true, but the weight of the load is still a continuing problem. I think a lot of parents will know this when they pick up their children's schoolbags and consider them heavy.

I appreciate the demands of load carrying because, when I was a cadet at the Royal Military College Duntroon in 1988 and 1989, we used to carry 20 or even 30 per cent of our body weight on some occasions. When I returned in the late 1990s as a staff member, there was a rule that cadets should only carry 10 per cent of their weight. In the wider Army context, I knew that, even in the 1980s, soldiers used to buy their own packs to look after their backs when the service issued ones were not any good. Most bought ALICE packs, which had a frame that helped distribute the load.

With regard to school students and loads being carried, I do think things have changed and there is more attention paid to such matters these days. Many schools now have lockers, or at least secondary schools do, so less weight needs to be carried around the schools, but, because secondary students have multiple classes each day, study and homework obligations often require that a range of reference materials be taken to and from school each day. It is here that the opportunity exists, particularly when a school has a laptop policy, for a genuine drive towards replacing books with other media as reference materials. I am not suggesting that such a push should be at the expense of the written word or note-taking but, where possible, converting the reference material from hard copy books to multimedia options should be pursued.

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it has been reported that, because of school related load carrying, there are increasing numbers of children developing irreversible back deformities and half of all children suffer back pain by age 14. Spinal abnormalities and even scoliosis are increasing problems. These reports suggest that schoolbags may be twice the weight of those carried 10 years ago. I find it very scary that the experts consider that regularly carrying more than 15 per cent of body weight over shoulders risks long-term and permanent damage for young, developing bodies.

A study of first-year secondary school students in Ireland found that the mean schoolbag weight was 6.2 kilograms and that 68 per cent of the bags exceeded 10 per cent of body weight. Almost all had backpacks but only 65 per cent carried them with both straps. It was also found, not surprisingly, that weights were greatest on Fridays—6.7 kilos—as students carried home more books for homework and study over the weekend. From that study and from what I have found locally it appears that such problems are common between the UK, Ireland and Australia. I believe that across this country loads in excess of 10 per cent of body weight are being carried and that this represents a health threat to our children and an increasing public health challenge for our nation.

It is therefore my view that this is worthy of the attention of COAG when education ministers meet. It is absolutely the right time for school and education systems to look for the opportunities in this challenge. In particular, if the school has a laptop policy then it should set a time frame for converting all possible reference materials to a form of electronic media. If a laptop policy is unrealistic for a school community then attention needs to be given to alternative measures, which should include a policy of bags with wheels or greater monitoring of loads by the students and by the schools. Although backpacks are probably more socially acceptable for secondary school students, policies that encourage wheelie bags would change the perception over time—let alone their being far more comfortable and less onerous for load carrying. I believe that this is an important policy issue that should be addressed as a priority.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I congratulate the member for Cowan for bringing this important issue to the parliament. I am going to address the issue from the perspective of spinal care for young people and the need to ensure that proper spinal care is in place and that young people understand the issues surrounding it. One of those issues is the fact that carrying heavy schoolbags does put a strain on a young person's spine. It was very interesting to hear the member for Cowan mention wheelie bags. That would be an ideal solution. When I set up my mobile offices shopping centres I always use a wheelie bag because it is a lot easier to carry material. The member for Cowan also talked about replacing hard-copy reference books with CDs or thumb drives and limiting the loads that young people are carrying. That is a very desirable approach but it also comes with some risks. I will highlight that in my contribution to this debate. I was horrified when I heard him say that they weighed a bag that was 7.5 kilograms, since the recommended weights for bags are 3.9 kilos for 12- to 13-year olds, 4.3 kilos for 14- to 15-year-olds and 4.8 kilos for 16- to 17-year-olds. That just shows the amounts of textbooks and resources that young people are forced to carry these days.

Of course it is very important that school bags be carried properly. Both shoulders of the backpack should be put on, and young people should be encouraged to remove their backpacks when they are standing around. If you look at some high school students you will find that they tend to slip their bag over one shoulder. That is doing great damage to their spine. It is very important that the load be evenly dispersed, as has already been mentioned. Students should not ride bicycles when they are carrying a backpack. That is quite dangerous, though it is quite common. Again, it is very important that those backpacks are not overloaded. If young people are regularly carrying laptops, they should be encouraged to check the weight of that laptop. If you have a laptop along with reference material it can make the backpack even heavier. And if you have a laptop you should be carrying it close to your back.

Computing itself raises some issues around spinal care in young people, different to load carrying. It also raises the issue of spending a long time in front of computers. Workplaces ensure that they are ergonomically designed for people. The computer should be in the right place, the screen should be at eye level and approximately 50 to 60 centimetres from their eyes. They should be encouraged to work away from the computer for periods of time.

On one hand you have got the issue of carrying heavy books and, on the other hand, you have got young people spending an inordinate amount of time in front of computers. Our students, our young people, should be made aware that there are risks associated with both. There should be a five-minute break after every hour in front of a computer and a five-minute break after every 30 minutes in front of a laptop. Prolonged use of laptops is not ideal for spinal health of young students. Using laptops for extended periods can cause problems, including visual problems.

So I think it is really important that we look at the whole issue of spinal care in young people. It is important that we look not only at lessening the load but also ensuring that computer use is undertaken appropriately.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Cowan for putting this motion before the House. When you buy a textbook now, the norm is generally to have access to the textbook in an online form. The recent World Innovation Summit for Education global survey predicts that books will, largely, have been replaced by online learning by 2030, in 15 years time. And what the member for Cowan has identified is the fact that that is the direction of education, going more and more towards online learning, and yet schoolkids are carrying bags that are much heavier than the correct, appropriate weight. And from my own family experience, the kids often carry not just one bag but two or three. Spinal pain is one of the most costly and disabling problems affecting adults in industrialised countries. Most population based surveys of back pain record a one-year prevalence of 50 per cent and a lifetime prevalence of between 60 and 80 per cent, which is concerning in terms of the loss of productivity, healthcare costs, and personal pain and suffering.

Disability from back pain places a significant burden on the individual and their community. Back problems are the leading specific musculoskeletal cause of health system spending in Australia. Adolescents have been repeatedly identified around the world as suffering from spinal pain. From an Australian perspective, approximately 50 per cent of adolescents tend to report spinal pain—that is, either neck or lower back pain. There is a strong association between adolescent lower back pain, particularly for young people in the rapid years of spinal growth—that is, 12 to 14 years for girls and 13 to 16 years for boys—and repeatedly carrying heavy school backpacks. Growing numbers of children are developing back problems because of the weight of the bags that they carry to school. Doctors are reporting a rise in the cases of spinal abnormalities in students, including disfiguring curvatures, such as scoliosis. One potential source of the problem is overloaded schoolbags that are up to double the size of those carried 10 years ago.

Students routinely carry bags filled with heavy books, laptops, sports kit and packed lunches. The Chiropractors' Association of Australia has raised concerns about backpack trends amongst school children and the potential long-term damage that could be caused by overladen and ill-fitting bags. According to the CAA, 90 per cent of school children have bad posture when carrying their bags and could experience spinal damage as a result. The CAA surveyed 346 students in Adelaide and 400 parents weighed their children's bags. They found weights of up to 17 per cent of a student's body weight in the bag; the average was 6.6 kilograms. Now health experts say children risk long-term and ultimately permanent damage if they regularly carry more than 10 per cent of their body weight over their shoulders. And that recommendation has been around since 1977.

Putting too much stress on a child's back at such an important stage of growth and development will result in serious spinal problems both immediately and later on in life. Some of the problems caused by bad posture at an early age include reduced mobility, early degeneration of bones and joints, increased vulnerability to injuries and unhealthy pressures on a child's nervous system.

The advances in technology give us an opportunity to significantly reduce this weight, by converting reference materials into removable CDs, thumb drives, other media and even allowing licensed web-based access to their reference materials. Some schools are already addressing this problem by replacing textbooks completely with iPads and e-texts.

I would like to commend the member for Cowan on raising this important issue. Let's hope that we see some movement in the school sector, to move with the times and make sure that children are not carrying heavy backpacks.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today, a little aghast, to speak on the motion moved by the member for Cowan. As most people here will know, I came from school education before becoming a member of this place. I raise the point that, under the previous Labor government, we had a federal review of education to see what it would take to improve the educational outcomes of students across this country. That review found that equity in funding was the critical issue that needed to be addressed in education. So I find myself here in this place discussing something that, I think, was realistically an issue in schools a decade ago.

Initial concerns around the weight of bags were addressed in schools in a variety of ways. In the school where I was working it was addressed by a timetable change, not driven by the weight of bags but driven by students' ability to concentrate and by trying to build resilience of study in our students. In the school that I was working in we took a decent amount of time to study this. We determined that we would move from 50-minute sessions to 100-minute sessions, in high schools, to ensure that students had time to connect with what they were learning, time to build the collaborative approaches, as well as time to build in individual concentration and focused writing practice for, in most cases, 20-minute periods in that 100 minutes. One of the side effects of this, of course, was that students only did three subjects across a given day and not six, which of course reduced the load in their schoolbags by 50 per cent, if the timetable was done productively.

Another thing that had an influence on the weight of schoolbags was students not bringing a change of clothes for sport but wearing their sport uniform on the day that they were to do physical education or sport, which of course also reduced the weight they were carrying in their bags.

The most important thing that happened, and I am sure people in this place remember, was the Building the Education Revolution, which caused a digital disruption in our schools across this country with the introduction of personalised computers for students. We have heard a lot of talk in the chamber this morning about laptops. People may not realise that most schools introduced netbooks and iPads which, of course, weigh a lot less than a laptop. Of course, Building the Education Revolution not only put more desktop computers into schools but it also broke, if you like, a pattern between textbooks and digital technologies and that has now been going on for some time.

So I am very surprised that it is still an issue in schools across this country. I would have thought that most had moved on. I would have thought that most school communities had addressed this issue some time ago, because it is 15 years since most textbooks had CDs delivered with them, providing the capacity for students to put the CD in their bag and take it to school.

But I would raise this matter. It is at least seven years that publishers have provided interactive online content. It is not looking out to 2030. Online textbooks and the ability to use the interactive websites that go with them have been available to schools for at least seven years and most schools are using those resources very wisely. Of course, there are an enormous number of schools across the country and perhaps some in remote and regional areas are not getting to this place as quickly as others, but I am still surprised that this has not moved much further than it has.

I remember, as we all remember, carrying The Web of Life and the heavy maths textbook in my schoolbag on my back. It is a long time since I did year 12. Backpacks were not de rigueur in that day. We carried bags that we slung over one shoulder, off one strap, and backpacks were introduced to stop that practice and ensure that both straps were going over children's backs. I do not think this is something the federal government can actually enforce. I hear a lot about a nanny state and then find myself here talking about things that are well and truly in the purview of parents and in the purview of schools. I am surprised, because what is in the purview of those opposite today is to improve the educational outcomes of students across this country, and I call on them to pay attention to that.

Debate adjourned.