Popular Ergonomic and Ordinary School Bag in Malaysia

In Malaysia, most children carry heavy bags to and from school, and often up and down two or more flights of stairs if the classroom is on the upper floors. Some school does not have lockers. Even if pupils follow the daily timetable, there are still a lot of books to carry. On a typical school day, the school bag was stuffed with textbooks, workbooks, exercise book, water bottle and stationeries. 

Ideally a school bag should weigh less than 10 per cent of the child’s body weight. Children should not carry heavy bags at a young age. Carrying a heavy backpack to school every day will result in neck, back, and shoulder aches. It could also lead to scoliosis, a condition where the spine curves sideways.

For those in primary school, most parents prefer to buy ergonomic school bag as they believe that it pays to invest in a good bag for their children. An ergonomic school back or backpack is ergonomically designed to help distribute the weight evenly across the shoulder and relieving the stress on  shoulder and lower back.

However, some parents still prefer to buy an ordinary school bag due to cost and they believe that it’s all about the total load the child carry. To prevent children from overloading their bags, they prefer to buy a small bag that can contain just the necessary items that needs to be brought to school.

With so many different styles of school bags available in the market today, choosing the right school bag is important but the task is not easy. 

Tips when buying “ergonomic bag” and “ordinary’ school bag”:-

• Size: To choose a backpack of the right size, it should fit from your child’s shoulder to the waist. Don’t choose an oversized backpack in the hope that it will ‘last’ longer.
• Padding: Choose a bag with wide, padded, and easily adjustable shoulder straps. A padded back panel is a plus for greater comfort.
• Load Distribution: Multiple pockets or compartments to store different things and side pockets that are large enough to fit water bottle. Additional straps such as chest and hip belts can help to stabilise the load.a