There are criticisms from parents that secondary school students are carrying too heavy bags with many books, causing health and other problems. However, this problem is to be solved in the coming year as elementary school students in Mongolia will have digital textbooks from next year. The preparation of transferring printed textbooks to electronic form is progressing at 80 percent complete, reports the Ministry of Education and Science.

Minister of Education and Science Enkh-Amgalan Luvsantseren said, “With the technical support of the Polish company “Learnetic”, 33 textbooks for elementary grades will be made into electronic and interactive versions. In this way, students will have paper and electronic textbooks. Young children will no longer need to carry heavy school bags, and textbook exercises and tasks will become more interesting and understandable.”

Digital textbooks are scheduled to be received in February and will be used on a trial basis. It will be fully introduced into use after additional adjustments are made based on the results of the pilot test.