Thousands of students in Cyprus carry school bags every day that far exceed recommended weight limits. Textbooks, notebooks and supplementary materials are piled in regardless of whether they will be used that day — while experts have been warning for years about the consequences for posture and musculoskeletal health.
In dozens of European countries, the situation is entirely different. France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland — everywhere schools provide lockers, in-classroom book storage or digital platforms that drastically reduce the volume of materials carried. In France, the national recommendation stipulates that the bag should not exceed 10% of the student’s body weight.
A recent scientific conference in Greece revealed that a significant proportion of children carry bags exceeding 20% of their body weight, with researchers pointing to risks of musculoskeletal pain, increased fatigue and concentration difficulties.
Green Party MP Charalambos Theopemptou publicly raised the question: why are practices already working in other countries not applied in Cyprus? He proposed pilot programmes in schools to evaluate their effectiveness.
The Ministry of Education has issued a circular with guidelines on timetable organisation, using one notebook per subject and keeping textbooks in classrooms. Yet without lockers or structural changes to school infrastructure, the school bag in Cyprus remains “unbearable” — both literally and figuratively.
