School buildings are not ready

School construction means in concrete terms the action of building a new school and implies beforehand the decision-making process of the building, followed by the construction in itself, together with maintenance and reparation. Several levels of decisions are expected to be made: central government level, regional level, districts and ‘departments’ and more importantly the community level. School construction has a certain impact on learning outcomes because if buildings are not ready on time for school year or if rehabilitation or maintenance is needed, class cannot be given to pupils properly.

Building a school requires engineers to respect some conditions for the building to be children-friendly despite the fact that each school construction is different since its construction adapts to the local context. Generally agreed strategies exist in the literature to ensure that school spaces are safe, healthy and sanitary, inclusive, accessible, and gender sensitive.

More specifically, some materials are chosen according to the local climate or other natural characteristics (natural hazards, animals and insects, possible diseases). In areas prone to natural hazards or conflict, school buildings must ensure safety and can even be transformed into shelters as short-term solutions, so it does not impede classes from starting again. This is why permanent schools should also be disaster resistant, cost-effective, and environmentally sensitive.

Promising policy options

Construction planning

Construction planning is indeed one important step to assess the need for school construction before the process begins. Not only stakeholders must act according to the existing building codes and set clear expectations when it comes to budget, timelines, and repartition of roles, they also have to respect transparency, monitoring, and evaluation of the project. The planning process needs to contain a risk evaluation that includes considerations of risks and natural hazards and assesses the needs to adapt to the local needs.

Share data and raise awareness on the importance of building new, safe, appropriate, and children-friendly schools are the two main strategies to implement in order to involve stakeholders in the school building process. Construction planning is indeed one important prerequisite to assess the need for school construction before the process begins.

Assess demographic data, the geographical distribution of pupils among regions, learning outcomes data, the status of the buildings and the number of classrooms needed, since this is a fundamental part of the building planning.

Guarantee evidence-based data (sharing, transparency), with a focus on capacity building and M&E after the construction, realizing frequent audits to ensure funds have been used properly and avoid corruption (set up a specific transparency programme with clear disbursement traceability and provision of clear and standardised contracts).

Respect central and district offices, municipalities and decentralised building codes. This means coordinating all the different stakeholders for decentralized management of education infrastructures: (community, local government, central offices, PPP, Social Funds) to set a range of targets, a timeline and a budget with realistic affirmations.

Define the framework for maintenance and rehabilitation: inspection reports written at least 1/ year, clear procedures for financing the reparation, and involvement of the community on this task.

School construction

For schools to be children-friendly and attract pupils, several measures must be considered in the design and engineering steps. They are all related to adaptability to children’s needs which means schools must be safe, welcoming, and inclusive. Negotiate with local authorities an appropriate and safe school siting and location (e.g. within walking distance from pupils’ homes, that doesn’t require children to cross rivers or congested highways, etc.). Buildings must be safe and hazard resistant (e.g. floods, winds, mudslides, earthquakes, fires, toxic chemicals must be avoided).

Ensure that school buildings are provided with adequate indoor and outdoor spaces. This means choosing adequate building materials, having natural lighting whenever possible through a sufficient number of windows, comfortable internal temperature, air-circulation, electricity or other electricity alternatives to provide light, avoiding smells and pollution, safety provisions, and bright and welcoming colours on the walls and furniture.

Guarantee a healthy and effective learning environment: WASH (hand wash points, latrines), waste disposal, kitchen and food storage, library with a reading environment, open-areas and school grounds, administrative and teacher offices for more privacy.

Provide accessible and gender-sensitive infrastructures: access ramps to classrooms and latrines, separate latrines for boys and girls and sufficient private space for washing, large door openings, accessibility of external spaces, and reduced stair height.

Community involvement

Community-based approaches are often cost-efficient and can provide adapted local capacity and techniques when the partnerships are clearly defined. Communities are key actors in the school constructions since their involvement has a positive impact on education enrolment and school’s maintenance. Pushing for community involvement at the earliest stages means tapping into local capacity (techniques, engineering), and having parents participate in the decision of how the school will be constructed (e.g. design and location of the school, assessment of the potential dangers on the route, etc.).

Increase the community ownership thanks to training. During the school construction, give plans, guidelines and documents so the community can benefit from a concrete learning experience. Develop apprenticeships for young locals to develop a sense of ownership and reciprocity.

Finally, set up compensatory measures for the community when a school building project replaces potential housing.

Policy options for improving Equity and Inclusion

Gender-responsive policies

Promising policy options

Construction planning

The multiple strategies recommended in the general section of the present Policy page apply. However, educational planners and decision-makers should complement them by gender-mainstreaming construction planning. To provide a gender-responsive infrastructure, gender should be mainstreamed throughout the construction planning and development process. For example, Uganda’s 2016 Gender in Education Sector Policy aims to ensure that ‘school and or education institutions’ facilities and infrastructure are responsive to women and girls’ special needs and interests’. To reach such objective, one policy strategy focuses on ‘mainstream[ing] women and girls’ special needs and interests into facilities and infrastructure development’ (Uganda, 2016: 22-23).

Construct gender-responsive infrastructure and facilities

Research shows that policies that support investment in school infrastructure benefit all children in general (UNESCO and UNGEI, 2015). Nevertheless, in certain contexts, it can particularly benefit girls, especially in places where their demand for education is highly dependent on the availability of gender-responsive infrastructure (GPE and UNGEI, 2017).

Develop gender-responsive sanitation facilities. Allocating adequate resources to build gender-responsive sanitation facilities is a cost-effective policy option which positively affect girls’ retention and learning in school. Provide well-functioning, clean and separate toilets or latrines for girls, boys, female and male teachers. Also, provide facilities to manage menstruation as well as cloths, pads and/or sanitary products for those who need them the most.

Ensure a secure physical environment. Parents may have concerns regarding their children’s safety at school –especially girls—which is why it is essential to have surveillance mechanisms against harassment and abuse. Construct windows in each classroom which allow good visual contact with the outside (Kayumba, Ginoulhiac and Hirano, 2009), and build fences around the school to demarcate the school grounds. This prevents children from leaving school and keeps out intrusions. Fences can be made from galvanized line wires, vegetation or mud walls.

*For specific details consult Policy page School infrastructure.

Policies for children with disabilities

Promising policy options

Develop standards for accessibility and monitor the compliance of infrastructures

Governments should develop standards and guidelines to ensure that their education infrastructure –and other public spaces– are accessible to all children and individuals (UNESCO-Global Education Monitoring Report, 2018). For example, the Department of Basic Education in South Africa, based on the principles of Universal Design, developed a legally binding set of norms and standards for all public schools in 2013 (UNESCO-Global Monitoring Report, 2018). The Government of Ghana, with the support of UNICEF, developed standards and guidelines to ensure schools’ physical accessibility. All educational institutions must apply and adhere to them (Ghana, 2015).

Monitor the compliance of school’s construction with the aforementioned standards. A recommended strategy is to include information concerning schools’ physical accessibility through the Education Management Information Systems EMIS (e.g. the Child Functioning Module (CFM) developed by UNICEF and United Nation’s Washington Group on Disability Statistics can be added to the existent EMIS in order to get information about the school’s accessibility (UNICEF, 2018).)

The monitoring and evaluation of schools’ accessibility should not be based solely on the availability of features such as ramps.  It should provide a comprehensive picture about the school’s accessibility. This can be done by including information on how children are ‘getting to, entering and moving through the school; using water, sanitation and recreational facilities’ as well data on school evacuation systems (UNESCO-Global Education Monitoring Report, 2016: 311).

Construction planning

The question of accessibility should be incorporated from the onset of the planning phase. This can be done by applying the concept of Universal design and its underlying principles –known as goals– to each new construction. Universal design is the ‘design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design’ (Ron Mace, Center for Universal Design, cited by UNICEF, 2014: 12).

Additionally, the following criteria should be used to inform the design process of all school facilities to make them accessible: body fit, comfort, awareness, understanding, wellness, social integration, personalization and cultural appropriateness (Centre of Inclusive Design and Environmental Access, 2012, cited by UNICEF, 2014).

Building accessible infrastructure and facilities is a cost-effective measure as it ‘requires additional costs of approximately one percent if incorporated from the outset of a project’ (Snider and Takeda, 2008: iii) (e.g. incorporating accessibility into a South African school design represented 0.78% of the total construction cost (Metts, 2000, cited by Bolton, 2013).). In comparison, five percent –or more— is needed to make existent schools accessible (Snider and Takeda, 2008). It is nonetheless evident that when no new schools are to be built, performing accommodations and adaptations to existent ones is of utmost importance. For example, the programme Lisbon’s Escola Aberta adapted Lisbon’s existing primary schools to make them accessible. Among the many actions performed, ramps were built, wide doors were installed as well as grab bars and new signage (Homem de Gouveia and Miranda, 2006).

School construction: Ensure school’s infrastructure is accessible and inclusive

In order to make schools accessible and inclusive, the following aspects and recommendations should be taken into consideration (UNICEF, 2014):

• identify the barriers impeding children to get into the school. This can be done through multi-sectoral access audits;
• facilitate school access. All children must be welcomed at the same main entrance;
• improve accessibility within the school. Multiple aspects should be taken into consideration such as hallways and walkways, stairs and ramps;
• improve accessibility within the classrooms. The type of floor, the blackboards, and whiteboards, the lightning levels as well as the windows, should be taken into consideration;
• water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities must be accessible;
• build accessible playgrounds; and
• conceive accessible evacuation plans: Provide visual and audio alarms, ensure that strategies are developed to assist in the evacuation of every child.

*For specific details consult Policy page School physical infrastructure.

Community involvement

Ensure the active participation of local stakeholders –such as children with disabilities and their families, the local community, Disability People’s Organisations, teachers, school leaders, local education planners, among others–  throughout the design, planning and construction phases (Snider and Takeda, 2008; AusAID, 2013; UNICEF, 2014). The process should thus be participatory and consultative, especially with children with disabilities and their families who are ‘experts on their own needs and can often bring innovative and cost-effective ideas to the table’ (UNICEF, 2014: 11). This strategy is ‘a key to cost-effective universal design’ (Snider and Takeda, 2008: 6).

Universal Design is meant to benefit the entire population, accommodate to each particular context, as well as identify the locally available products and construction techniques (Snider and Takeda, 2008; Bolton, 2013). It is thus recommended ‘to educate designers, builders and citizens about the purpose and benefits of universal design for the whole community so that they understand its value and work to find good solutions to problems’ (Snider and Takeda, 2008: 6).

Policies for displaced populations and host communities

Contents under review

Policies for minority populations

Contents under review