I recently landed on an article by Louise Atkinson published on May 15 2012, on the Dailymail website, which stated that ‘As it’s revealed many youngsters haul half their body weight, is your child’s school bag harming their spine?’

After reading this article, I realised how little parents pay attention to the kind of school bags their children take to school. Some parents look for attractive colours without putting into consideration whether it will affect the child’s body posture. 

In Rwanda, school going children use back bags for carrying books, eats and other scholastic materials.  But parents need to know which back bag is appropriate for a particular child based on their age and weight. 

Don Yale’s article ‘Finding the best school bag for your kid is essential’ shows that preschoolers, for instance, should be carrying only a small backpack while older children may need to bring more spacious bags to carry more school things.

The article further states that teenagers may prefer much bigger backpacks or shoulder bags and these can be trendy. Children that are smaller should not carry heavy school bags.

Backpacks are the most used school bags in Rwanda. They are definitely the best because they are user friendly. When buying the back bags, parents should buy bags with wide straps that are padded to help prevent shoulder pain.

Parents also need to constantly ask children to  wear the backpack across both shoulders and discourage the trend of carrying the bag on one side because it affects their body posture. 

Experts on kidspot.com have continued to show that school bags should never weigh more than 10 to 20 per cent of a student’s body weight because when it does, injury can occur. Some teachers have noticed that children are straining their bodies under the weight of their school bags.