How to Ensure a Healthy Environment in Schools?
To ensure quality education for future generations, we shouldn't overlook the significance of a quality school environment. Creating optimal conditions for learning enhances creativity, boosts student motivation, and nurtures their abilities. School buildings, a significant part of children's lives, make it exceptionally crucial for the interior environment to be as healthy as possible.
KEY ELEMENTS OF AN IDEAL SCHOOL
Good acoustics, sufficient lighting, air quality, and other factors significantly impact the school environment's quality. These elements affect the comfort of life within the school and fundamentally influence students' academic and mental development. Hence, these considerations should receive utmost attention, not only in constructing new schools but also in renovating existing ones.
- Acoustics - school classrooms should offer acoustic comfort, minimizing noise and reverberation time.
- Lighting - sufficient natural and artificial lighting should be utilized in the rooms.
- Air quality - a classroom crowded with students must have proper ventilation.
- Thermal comfort - maintaining a comfortable temperature influences both psychological and physical well-being.
Correctly addressing all these aforementioned aspects of a quality environment nowadays isn't particularly complex. However, during project implementations, we often encounter unclear expectations from stakeholders and a lack of information. An insightful resource in this regard is the Comprehensive Manual for Public Buildings, developed by specialists and experts from the Healthy School project.
QUIET, please!
Certainly, underestimating the acoustics of classrooms in schools is not advisable. Noise can significantly impact academic performance and, more importantly, negatively affect the health of children and teachers.
- The noise level in a classroom should not exceed 50 dB.
In Europe, several studies have been conducted in the past focusing on school noise levels. They concur that the noise levels in educational facilities are often excessively high, surpassing 70 dB in classrooms and 85 dB in school corridors. According to the Ministry of Health, prolonged exposure to such noise levels can lead to irreversible hearing damage.
- The acoustics in classrooms can be easily addressed using SilentPET acoustic panels.
Concentrating correctly in a noisy environment is impossible, so it's crucial to create an environment in schools that allows children the necessary peace and conducive learning conditions. At LIKO-S, we can design optimal acoustic solutions for various spaces. 'Upon completion of the classroom construction, with furniture already in place, we conduct thorough reverberation time measurements and then propose the placement of acoustic panels to ensure that the environment is most suitable for effective learning,' explained Pavel Kaňok, Head of Sales.
