Angara calls for armchairs for left-handed students

To promote equal development for all students, Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has sought passage of a bill requiring all schools to provide armchairs for left-handed students.

Angara’s bill, Senate Bill No. 2114, or the proposed “Mandatory Provision of Left-Handed Armchairs in Educational Institutions Act” aims to require educational institutions nationwide to provide left-handed armchairs for left-handed students who are currently “left without a choice but to work with right-handed armchairs.”

“The inefficient and awkward writing position that left-handed students must adopt in right-handed armchairs causes slower handwriting, placing them at a disadvantage on important timed examinations,” Angara said.

In the explanatory note of the bill, Angara said about 10 to 15 percent of the world population, are left-handed and every day they struggle to live in a world where majority are right-handed.

According to the senator, studies have shown that a right-handed armchair does not offer lefthanded students the same arm support that right-handed students enjoy, causing back, neck and shoulder pain to left-handed students.

Angara pointed out that advocates in the United Kingdom (UK) are already calling on their government to recognize schoolroom struggles, which hamper the development of left-handers.

He said education experts have noticed that thousands of left-handed schoolchildren are struggling in the classroom because of a failure to meet their needs.

Citing Lauren Milsom, author of Your Lefthanded Child and co-founder of the website Anything Left-handed, Angara agreed that lefthanded pupils are often unable to use computer mouse in computing lessons and find scientific instruments such as microscopes, with controls on the right, harder to reach.