Street plays, gardening, cooking competitions and quizzes are among the activities Delhi government school students are participating in as part of the “10 Bagless Days” initiative for the ongoing academic year 2025-26.
The concept was formally introduced in the last academic session under the National Education Policy 2020 and now applies to classes I-VIII. (REUTERS file)Officials said that under this initiative, students go to school without their usual textbooks and focus on skill-building exercises. The concept was formally introduced in the last academic session under the National Education Policy 2020 and now applies to classes I-VIII.
“The Union Ministry of Education has approved the ‘Bagless Day’ activity in schools at the primary level (Class I-VIII) for all of Education-Delhi. The activities will be conducted from January to February 2026. The activities will be conducted two days per week until the requirement of 10 days is met,” the education department added in January. ₹13,500 has been sanctioned for the initiative.
Principals and teachers told HT that they have a better roadmap for implementation this time. Abdhesh Jha, principal of CM Shree School in Rohini Sector 8, said the school has divided these classes into two groups: Junior (IV) and Senior (VI-VIII). Senior class activities are more subject-specific like quizzes, lab practicals and reading sessions in the library, whereas for juniors it is based on physical activities like Nukkad plays and fancy dress competitions.
Similarly, Ranveer Singh Dalal, principal of Govt Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Mongolpuri, said: “We have just completed a bag-free day. For the junior class, we encouraged the students to garden and learn the names of the different plants and trees in the school, while the senior class was asked to explore the school with library-like spaces.
