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Chapter3

This chapter discusses factors to consider when locating, designing, and constructing child-friendly schools. It emphasizes that child-friendly schools should reflect the local culture and environment while also incorporating universal design principles. The key objectives of location, design, and construction are to attract students, improve attendance and learning outcomes, and create safe, inclusive environments. Community participation is important in planning schools to give them a sense of belonging. Design should prioritize the needs of children and harmonize the school with its surroundings.

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CHAPTER 3 Location, design and construction
Table of Contents Chapter 3 Location, design and construction 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 General approach and key considerations 3.1.2 Basic elements for a good school 3.1.3 Additional elements for a child-friendly school 3.2 Pedagogy and design 3.2.1 Classrooms 3.2.2 Facilities 3.2.3 Outdoor spaces 3.3 Locating schools or learning spaces 3.3.1 School size and location 3.3.2 Mobility 3.3.3 Assessment of topographical risk 3.4 Additional elements in design 3.4.1 Clustering 3.4.2 Dwellings 3.4.3 Landscaping 3.4.4 Hygiene, sanitation, water 3.4.5 Early childcare facilities 3.4.6 Emergency situations 3.5 Factors influencing design 3.5.1 Gender 3.5.2 Access for the disabled 3.5.3 Climate 3.5.4 Cost of infrastructure 3.6 Design with involvement of all 3.6.1 Users 3.6.2 Gender needs 3.6.3 Partners 3.7 Remaining challenges 3.7.1 Low cost 3.7.2 Multidisciplinary teams 3.7.3 Provision of land for schools 3.7.4 Schools in general community improvement projects 3.7.5 Coordination
CHAPTER 3 Location, Design and Construction Construction projects provide ample ways to play a strong role in the overall plan: ensuring community participation in the process; ensuring adherence to child-friendly principles in building design and construction; and ensuring that the end results contribute to realizing goals for children and women. [Education agencies] that decide to engage in construction, therefore, must go beyond the mere ‘bricks and mortar’ aspects, and also take into account ‘software’ aspects in the planning. These include the maintenance and use of facilities, the quality of services, how the community is mobilized, the extent and nature of community participation. All of these should be determinants of success for [agency-assisted] construction projects. In short, whether or not to engage in construction is a programmatic decision. Extract adapted from Construction Guidance Note (Draft), UNICEF Programme Division, October 2006 , 3.1 Introduction Child-friendly schools are not maintenance of new child-friendly architectural phantoms from a schools and the important factors strange place. They are schools with for renovating and adjusting existing attributes typically associated with schools to make them child-friendly. good schools in many countries. The approach centres on the child, However, they have additional the main user of these learning elements that complement and spaces and environments, with reinforce the principles and practices the understanding that family of the child-friendly approach and community participation is to education. fundamental for best results. In this regard, the main objectives in child- This chapter examines the planning friendly school planning are: and design of new spaces and environments for child-friendly • Attract students (increase access); schools and sets out quality planning • Improve attendance rates; standards for improving existing • mprove retention and completion I schools and temporary structures rates; used as schools. It focuses on location, design, construction, operation and • Improve learning achievement; 1 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
• Provide safe, inclusive, welcoming prominence in design considerations environments for all children; for a child-friendly school. This will help reinforce the child’s self-identity • Provide enabling learning and promote a sense of belonging to a environments, including place and group. accommodating children with physical and mental/learning disabilities; When their architecture is a reflection of the community, culture, natural • Build a sense of community within environment and the family, the school (institutional ethos); schools are more than just shells or physical structures. When a school • Involve parents and the community is envisioned and created with the (support and participation); child at its centre and supported by • Cultivate harmony between the the family and the community, the school and its community; physical structures become interactive places to learn and teach – places • Harmonize buildings, school where teachers facilitate and manage grounds and environment as the learning process and students children interact with them. learn and explore new possibilities that match their abilities and potential. 3.1.1 General approach and key The school becomes an integrated, considerations holistic system that retro feeds itself from the surrounding elements, giving A structure for learning (school) and it an identity. It is this dimension that its immediate environment (school promotes community ownership of grounds) must offer basic minimum schools and gives schools a sense of standards to encourage and facilitate belonging to the communities they the main objectives of a child-friendly serve. This dimension is one of the school. These have much in common most essential considerations for the with any good school; therefore the design of child-friendly schools. child-friendly school needs to be conceived as an improvement on Schools must be anchored in the the basics of existing good schools. reality of their location in terms of A child-friendly school also must culture, environment and links to respond to the environmental and families and the community. But if that cultural context of its location. A were all, schools would be parochial universal, standardized approach places antithetical to learning that does not respond to the unique is grounded in the total heritage of characteristics of a place and culture human knowledge. Schools are not and could result in detachment and simply a means of learning about local alienation of the community. reality; they are also the gateways to the legacy of human endeavours and School marks an important early possibilities. milestone in the child’s lifelong journey of intellectual and School architecture should promote psychosocial development. Therefore, harmony with local reality while an understanding of the child’s own also incorporating the best external culture and environment should have influences. A remote, rural school, 2 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
for instance, should conform to additional elements that make the its environment but also take difference between a ‘good’ school advantage of such innovations as and a ‘child-friendly’ school. Many modern hygiene practices, popular major catastrophes have provided games and sports, and technology. opportunities to create new school Similarly, a school can reflect the local systems based on CFS principles from authoritative hierarchy and a culture the ashes of old school systems. of respect for elders, while also promoting such values as children’s In Bam (Iran), for example, the participation in their learning process community, families and students and giving them a voice in the worked together on a school design school as a whole. The architecture project to ‘build back better’ after the of the child-friendly school can 2001 earthquake. In examples from promote both harmony with the African countries, new approaches local environment and openness to were implemented not only to design the benefits of external influences. schools but also to achieve active This is an important challenge in community participation in the the architecture and design of any creation, design and construction good school, particularly so for child- of an environmentally sound child- friendly schools. friendly school. The possibilities for design of 3.1.2 Basic elements for child-friendly schools vary among a good school countries and areas. In some cases, there will be extensive parent and The basic planning and design community involvement in all aspects requirements that make for a good of location, design, construction and school are the foundation on which maintenance; the focus could be on further elements can be added to turn using local building materials and them into child-friendly schools. The the skills of community artisans. challenge in many countries goes In other cases, the issue might be beyond simply designing and building conforming to sophisticated building new schools that are child friendly to codes and materials standards as well renovating and converting existing as providing for high-level technical schools into child-friendly schools. supervision of building contractors. The extent of this latter challenge In all cases, the issue is to apply CFS depends on what already exists and principles in order to create a child- whether they are actually ‘good’ friendly school. (See Table 3.2.) schools. Table 3.1 summarizes basic planning and design standards related There are three elements in child to a good school. development that are essential for child-friendly school design – safety, health and nutrition. These three must 3.1.3 Additional elements for be adequately addressed if the school a child-friendly school is to become an inclusive, holistic learning landscape that provides a Theoretical considerations and safe, enabling learning environment practical experience have generated where children can thrive. 3 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
Table 3.1: BASIC PLANNING AND DESIGN STANDARDS FOR EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES Structure The building is to be structurally stable, weatherproof according to local environmental conditions, climatically comfortable, easily exited in case of emergency and well integrated with the environmental and cultural context. Administrative Separate space for faculty/administrative personnel gives privacy to students and teachers and offices maximizes the use of classroom space, enabling staff to work separately from students. Proximity between classrooms and administrative offices is recommended to monitor students’ activities and create ‘safety through transparency’. Safe water Fresh potable water should be available to students within the school. Proper plumbing infrastructure allows for the distribution of safe water. If such a setup is not possible, a borehole/well should be included in the school compound. This can be augmented with a rainwater catchment system in the roof as appropriate. Hygiene A separate space should be provided with water and soap or other cleaning agent for children to wash facilities their hands. Toilets/latrines Separate toilets or latrines should be available for girls and boys. Privacy, cleanliness and safety are major considerations when planning location and design of facilities. Light, air, sun, Classrooms need good fresh-air circulation to avoid heat and excessive humidity. To ensure adequate dust, glare, daylight, a minimum of 20 per cent of the classroom floor area should be window area. Electricity reflection, or another means of power is needed to provide light and to operate equipment. Classrooms must humidity, noise be sufficiently shaded from direct sunlight, glare (direct light) and reflection (indirect light). Schools and odour should not be located close to sources of excessive noise (traffic, railways, industries, informal sector activities) or excessive pollution or odours (waste belts, abattoirs). When this is not possible, design measures should be used to minimize the impact of these problems. Colour Materials and finishes should be the light, natural colours of the materials themselves, selected in harmony with warm natural hues as accents (reds, oranges, maroons, ochres and linen/khaki/off- whites) dictated by local, cultural preferences. For example, timber may be finished using clear varnish to preserve the natural beauty and warmth of the material. Or brighter accents can be used for play corners, decks, corridors and furniture. Learning spaces should be light and relaxed in colour, not gloomy, dull or dark. Power The school should have a power source to provide light, connectivity for communication equipment (electric or (computers, radios, television) and other appliances (refrigerators, stoves). Alternative sources of alternative) energy (solar, wind and biogas) can be integrated into the design of schools where appropriate. Safety Fire prevention and emergency evacuation plans must be part of the design process and built into the provisions school programme. Combustible materials should not be used for structural purposes unless treated to resist fire. Construction materials should be free of components or elements that can be hazardous to children. When construction is finished, school sites should be free of all fluid, solid and gaseous wastes. Schools should not be located close to industrial or other hazards. Health At a minimum, schools should have a first-aid kit or medicine cabinet for basic emergencies or provisions accidents. Proximity to a clinic enables health personnel to visit the school periodically and permits children to be taken to the clinic for treatment of health problems. This proximity is accomplished in many developing countries through clustering the main social service facilities in the same location. Library A designated space where books and learning resources are available in a proper reading environment is central to learning and teaching activities. The library or resource room needs to be strategically located within the school for easy access, but away from noisy areas for a greater degree of quiet. Landscaping School grounds form an integrated, holistic unity with school buildings and their users, but in conventional school planning they are often neglected. Trees are vital for filtering sun, dust and noise and for beautifying the school. Indigenous trees, shrubs and flowers should be planted in the school compound along with edible plants meant to teach children food production and conservation. Trees also have a softening and calming effect on the learning environment and its users. Planning the school landscaping is a good way to involve children in the realization of a child-friendly school. 4 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
Table 3.2: Additional Functional Elements for a child-friendly school Flexible Flexible spaces increase child participation in class and allow teachers to provide a more dynamic spaces environment for learning and teaching. Such spaces provide opportunities for group activities, areas for manual projects and easy access to open spaces. Individual classrooms or other facilities that create outdoor space between structures give students a chance to be in open areas when in transit between classes. Classrooms should be accessible for all children; ramps and wide doorways should be provided for less mobile children. School library In child-friendly schools, the library and resource room is likely to have some connection to the local and resource community. Where it is feasible and in line with school practice, these facilities should be located and room designed so they are accessible to the community. In other cases, skilled and knowledgeable persons in the community may be considered resources for learning about local culture, history and handicrafts. Bathrooms Teachers need to have separate facilities for men and women. For pupils, designated separate bathrooms for boys and girls within or close to the classrooms are the most practical and safest arrangement. These facilities can also be designed and located so that they are shared among clusters of classrooms to protect younger children. Relaxation At the nursery and lower-elementary level, rooms where children can relax are appropriate in the rooms close to design of child-friendly schools. In general, homelike elements next to learning spaces provide a learning areas friendly, inviting atmosphere for this age group. Individual Along with flexible learning spaces for large and small groups (project-based learning/teamwork), spaces individual learning spaces should also be provided, since individual children have their own learning styles and some will need space to be on their own at times to study or reflect. Open spaces Easy access to open spaces from classrooms allows children to be in close contact with their environment and to engage in physical activities. Open spaces can be designed as play yards for sports, school gardens and orchards, decks or verandas for outdoor learning activities, open performance spaces, wide corridors and courtyards, trellises, canopies, shaded pavilions, niches, alcoves, play lofts and enclosed backyards. In typical child-friendly schools, the community would be allowed to use some of these spaces after school hours for town meetings, local gatherings and other events. Kitchen Space for school meal preparation should be designed and provided with equipment and furniture that ensure food is kept fresh and away from flies and other pests that undermine food quality. Clinic Where there is a campus or cluster of social services, having the school near a clinic provides students with general health services and allows for the care of children in need of permanent monitoring of health conditions. Such a health facility would normally serve the entire community, either after school or by providing separate access for school and community patients. This basic link provides a connection between school, community and the family, revolving around the child’s well-being. Protective The protective element of child-friendly school design has two main aspects: • To counteract bullying and abuse, teachers and parents must be trained in non-violent, child-based discipline strategies and interventions. This means no beatings, canings or other humiliating forms of punishment. Designing classrooms and other spaces so that activities are readily visible from the outside can deter child abuse. • Depending on location and context, the enclosure and boundaries of schools can vary in form and function. The goal is to find a balance where a fence can provide protection to the child from outside elements (such as traffic, animals), can define boundaries to keep children within the school and can also serve to section off an area for gardening and orchards. 5 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
3.2 Pedagogy and design Learning is at the heart of schooling, teaching spaces and the selection of and anything that facilitates learning school furniture. should be at the core of school design. This inherent principle gives rise to There are many other factors that key elements in the design of schools. influence a school’s physical design, For instance, it is obvious that healthy such as local environmental and children learn better than sick ones, climatic conditions, building materials, and that children are particularly level and availability of local human vulnerable to illnesses in hostile capacity, resources and priorities. In environments. School design should the same way that the CFS model itself include health protection, which allows is not a blueprint, there is no blueprint children to be at their best. Designated for the design of child-friendly schools, hand-washing areas and first-aid kits, but there are guidelines that illustrate for instance, are important aspects of how child-friendly principles help child-friendly schools. generate standards for high quality in a variety of circumstances. School design must be in tune with children’s normal developmental Experience with child-friendly schools stages. Children learn differently at suggests that school sizes should different stages of development. For ideally be kept to a maximum of 60 instance, younger children do not have to 75 children in preschool, 200 to the same skills, knowledge and ability 400 in elementary school and 600 to to learn complex concepts as older 800 in secondary school. Research children. Developmental differences shows that, compared to large schools are important not only in the design (more than 2,000), small schools (100 of child-friendly schools, but also in to 150 children) offer children greater the selection of teaching/learning opportunities to participate in extra- materials, the creation of learning/ curricular activities and sports and © UNICEF/NYHQ2005-1660/Mohan 6 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
to exercise leadership roles, critical • afety: Transparency in school S elements of a child-friendly school. design, so people can look inside the classroom and other school Improved school facilities and up-to- units, can protect children from date technology are widely recognized abuse by teachers or older students, to enhance learning, boost students’ particularly during after-school hours. and teachers’ morale, increase (See Chapter 5.) motivation, modernize educational • obile furniture: In child-friendly M methods (interactive self-learning) and schools, mobile furniture replaces enable teachers to focus on facilitating benches or desks that may have learning rather than on confronting been bolted to the floor. The designer problems caused by dated systems. needs to consider the children’s age However, these facilities and modern group, so chairs and desks fit the technology can only bring about students’ sizes comfortably. When improvements if there is also quality seats are movable, children can work teaching, effective management and an alone or in groups. Chairs or stools encouraging environment for children are easier to move around than to engage with such technology. In this benches. regard, experience with child-friendly schools has highlighted the importance • hildren’s home base: Storage C of buildings that encourage flexible, facilities in or near the classroom for participatory approaches and enable children’s class projects, artwork, bags innovative learning and teaching and coats are necessary. Students methodologies through multiple need to have private, lockable storage opportunities for learning, both indoors areas to keep their belongings – even and outdoors. if just a tiny space. • ational and international standards: N 3.2.1 Classrooms Classrooms need blackboards and, in the lowest grades, child- • Size and space: Classrooms can height rails for hanging students’ vary in size and serve different work and posters. The range and functions, with children moving expense of these vary widely. It is from one to another for different best to utilize local material and purposes. Instead of being single- community maintenance. National purpose spaces, they can allow for a and international standards exist and number of different activities, such should be followed. A blackboard as reading, research, group work and and teacher’s desk in front of the art. Direct access to the outdoors from classroom encourages a focus on the the classroom enables children to teacher as the resource for learning. make better use of the outdoors as a If the teacher can move about, giving learning resource, but there should assistance to groups or individual be one or more intermediate spaces students, children will be more (e.g., corridors) that link the outdoors actively involved. with the indoor learning environment. In that way, there will be a range of Before design begins, it is important learning spaces gradually changing to know a country’s existing building in character – and multiple learning regulations. In some countries, the opportunities. government may not have highly 7 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
defined regulations, or the regulations built on trust. Innovations need to have in use may not reflect current quality tangible value. A full-scale model for standards to protect against potential testing or certification of quality by disasters, such as floods, hurricanes a well-respected institution may be and earthquakes, or against hazardous needed to gain local approval, which conditions or toxic building materials is a crucial first step. Without this and finishes. In that case, the planner approval, construction will likely be should recommend the adoption delayed because of the community’s of international standards for given misgivings about quality and risks. hazardous profiles. Often a country These delays can be costly, can adopts well-accepted building codes damage the contractor’s relationships that may neither conform to the and create negative impressions international codes nor be adequately with funding partners. For this enforced. The project must adopt on- reason, the final architectural design, the-ground standards and practices technical working drawings and and ensure that the codes are construction details, which include enforced. all innovative design decisions, must be reviewed and officially approved A child-friendly school should be before contracts are approved and innovative enough to offer ministries construction begins. and communities a new opportunity to improve education quality. But innovations in space, form and shape, 3.2.2 Facilities construction methods and building materials are sometimes resisted by • Toilets, water for hand washing and the people completing the work. The drinking: Children and teachers need resistance may be from contractors gender-separated toilets and water and materials suppliers who are for hand washing and consumption. unfamiliar with a technique or have not School toilets that provide privacy previously worked with the material, and facilitate menstrual hygiene or it may originate in the Ministry of (personal hygiene rooms) must be Education, the school’s hierarchy or the at a safe location and maintained construction inspection agencies. in a non-discriminatory way. For adolescent girls and female teachers, This resistance can be a particularly washing places must be provided serious issue if the ministry’s pre- with enough water and privacy to existing schools have recently failed wash and dry cloths and rags used during a natural disaster. These during menstruation. Mechanisms catastrophes can reveal that the to provide or replace cloths, pads or school board and local contractors sanitary products for menstruation at did not comply with proper quality school are also helpful. precautions, constituting a possible • ater recycling: Water used for W case of fraud. In such a supercharged hand washing should be recycled atmosphere, the presentation of and used to water the orchards and innovative designs to an embattled vegetable gardens. Human and ministry and construction industry may animal waste could be utilized in the be undermined by negative publicity. production of compost. The type of solutions should correspond to local These situations call for careful, patient conditions and be accepted by the presentations as well as relationships communities. 8 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
• Hygienic area for food vendors and space with sink and water taps. The school kitchen: Food and nutrition lab needs adequate natural cross are integral elements in educational ventilation and solar shading. programmes and in many ways as important as the school pedagogy. A separate area for a kitchen and the 3.2.3 Outdoor spaces storage of food should be planned from the beginning. Bringing food • ecreational space: Ideally, every R and drink from outside the premises schoolyard should contain enough should be discouraged, because food space for locally popular sports, brought from home or sold at kiosks/ games and extra-curricular activities shops may not have been prepared (drama, singing, dancing) and for hygienically or preserved according school eco-gardens, orchards and to acceptable health standards. farms/woodlots. Children should be involved in laying out the • Storage of medicine: A designated games area since they understand space should be set aside to properly the requirements. When space store medicine. A refrigerated space constraints make organized sports may be required depending on the impossible, it is important to try types of medications. to find alternative spaces within • Health clinic: A doctor’s office the community. Often the space integrated with the school layout available at the school site is limited, can function as a school clinic and and administrators may be driven to community health centre. Like maximize the classroom space at the nutritional status, children’s health is expense of adequate open spaces for crucial to the learning process. children to play. The designer and project team need to be sensitive • IT centre and library: An information to these competing priorities, technology centre should be yet emphasize the importance of equipped with computers, Internet recreation in the overall performance connection and anything else that of the school. Sometimes the child- would allow students and the friendly school replaces damaged community to benefit from access to or destroyed classrooms. In these the World Wide Web. instances, the designer and project team need to balance the urgency • Laboratory: A separate classroom of returning children to class with or an area within the classroom the need to remove waste and can serve as a basic laboratory for create spaces for recreation. A the study of natural sciences. Core small budget for waste removal, areas for a small science cluster land clearance and landscaping by (physics/biology/chemistry) for the local community can reap large both lower and upper primary and rewards. The school does not consist secondary schools should include of buildings alone, but also of the such elements as teacher space, school grounds, which for much display space, charts, an emergency of the year are just as important to shower, outside biology court learning as the buildings themselves. (potted plants, flowers, animals), storage space for equipment, well- • chool grounds and food production: S ventilated storage space for toxic Children can be encouraged to help and acidic waste, a preparation room raise vegetables, fruits, domestic for lab experiments, and clean-up animals and fish, and the school 9 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
grounds can be used to help them • ultifunction open-air stage: When M learn effective methods of food possible, an outdoor stage can serve production and conservation as a classroom and performance (making jams, chutneys, etc.). When space for certain classes or school choosing the foods to produce, it activities. Such a space can also is important to create a culturally function as a meeting place for relevant experience. The production community activities after school should be done in close consultation hours since schools are sometimes with the community. This will help the only places for communities avoid the potential to exploit children to gather. Events may include for school income-generating graduation, opening of the school activities. Apart from the potential year and important holidays that for food production, indigenous parents, teachers and students shrubs, plants and trees on the celebrate at school. school grounds create learning Most child-friendly schools/spaces opportunities and beautify the are in tropical (warm/humid) or arid environment. (dry/hot) environments. Here, the • encing: Planning should take into F use of outdoor spaces for teaching is consideration the need for and type common and should be included in of fencing around a school. Often in the design. Often the school year will rural settings, the school will need to include several months during which be physically separated from the rest study within walled classrooms is of the community in order to create impractical because of high humidity a child-friendly space and maintain or stifling heat. The same school year, that space differently from the rest however, will have months when using of the environment. The fence and enclosed classrooms is necessary. In gates are also important to protect these cases, the design should include the property during non-school verandas or covered shade enclosures hours. In the case of school gardens, that enable the teacher and students to the fence protects the garden from move easily from enclosed rooms to pilferage and animal pests. open spaces. 3.3 Locating schools or learning spaces 3.3.1 School size and location spaces that include flowers, shrubs and trees – the latter as filters of sun, The size of schools, where they are dust and noise and for shaded outdoor placed and the way they are arranged lunches, outdoor learning and beauty. influence learning and how children Traditional school planning rarely relate to one another, adults and considers these issues in the planning the community. Studies show that and design phases. children prefer variety, flexibility and ease of maintenance in schools and Schools and school grounds should learning spaces. In addition, children be an integral part of the learning often state a preference for green process. Buildings are not merely 10 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
shelters; they also serve as tools noise, odour, dust, waste belts, for learning and teaching. The size fuel depots, small- and large-scale of each school and the layout and industries, traffic, crime and vandalism. organization of the learning spaces A central location also promotes a and environments should be based on sense of ownership among children physical and curricular needs. Above and community members. all, spaces should be well defined, well proportioned, fit for multiple learning activities and integrated with outdoor munity spaces and environments. Com Diagram 1: Spatial arrangement Child ol Fa m o OS y ch C1 S il C2 T/A G The school should ideally be within walking distance for all children. When children need to use transportation to C3 get to school, the cost increases and poor children are likely to be excluded. Distance is also a major factor in girls’ attendance. In an effort to enrol more children, the government of Uttar Pradesh, India, adopted a walking space arraingement distance of 1.5 kilometres as the norm C Classroom for schools in the plains and Teachers/administration T/A classroom C 1 kilometre in mountainous areas. A + Intermediate spaces T/A teachers/administration study in Egypt (Lone, 1996) showed G Garden 30 per cent enrolment for girls when + OS intermediate spaces Open stage G garden schools were 3 or more kilometres OS open stage from the children’s homes and more than 70 per cent when they were within Decisions about school locations 1 kilometre of home. must involve community members, including students, teachers and The location of child-friendly schools community leaders, along with is important for the safe and proper government representatives from functioning of facilities. The school water and sanitation, health, parks should be located where people live, and recreation, and social welfare. either in the village or settlement it Locations should protect children serves or close to it. This will make from safety, health and environmental interaction between school personnel, hazards, such as flooding, excessive children and parents easier and 11 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
provide a greater chance to foster comfort. Anti-seismic design in areas teamwork. Child-friendly schools/ prone to earthquakes and hurricane- spaces must signal that teaching proof design in areas with extreme and learning are valued by the winds, tsunamis and natural disasters community. must also be weighed. Diagram 2A: FOOTING FOR 3.3.2 Mobility TIMBER POST Schools do not have to be permanent structures. They can follow children in mobile communities. New schools can be designed to be quickly dismantled and moved with nomadic families to new locations. The telecommunication revolution has spread globally, and countries with rich access to telecommunications have seen a rapid growth in virtual learning communities. Distance learning and cyber-schools and spaces are providing teachers and children in remote areas with access to resources previously unavailable. In Sierra Leone, for instance, teachers use the Internet to request assessment materials from international colleagues. 3.3.3 Assessment of topographical risk Land conditions (such as bearing capacity, landslide risk, slope of terrain), water levels, the amount and intensity of annual rainfall and the potential impact of local winds on school structures should be carefully evaluated prior to selecting the location. A thorough study of microclimatic conditions (bioclimatic analysis) is fundamental to Note: The softer the ground, the deeper understanding the environment and the post should be placed to withstand the basis for good tropical design that wind and movement. addresses children’s and teachers’ 12 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
Diagram 2B: CONCRETE FOOTING DETAILS Mobile school in Namibia The Norwegian Association of Namibia Washer (NAMAS) runs an educational programme Wood plate for the semi-nomadic Himba people in Northern Namibia. The school consists of an administrative centre and 30 mobile classroom tents. Originally, the tents Concrete block core at every were of poor quality – they were too anchor location dark and too hot, and they undermined students’ and teachers’ productivity. Additionally, maintenance costs were high. NAMAS replaced the old tents with Norwegian tents consisting of a heavy- duty aluminium frame and a roof and wall covering of long-lasting sun- and heat-reflecting polyester with a 25-year lifespan. The resulting structure was both child-friendly and teacher-friendly. 20 cm Anchor bolts in Additionally, because these tents do not concrete floor have mid poles, they can be used for slab, 20 cm deep permanent housing. With construction time about 3.5 hours and dismantling about an hour, the classroom can be easily transported. 3.4 Additional elements in Design 3.4.1 Clustering providing teacher housing should not be ignored, because it may enhance Clustering small buildings around the sense of ownership and social gathering areas can effectively create control. Additionally, it can ensure variety and levels of intimacy in that the teaching staff are available learning spaces, where rooms can on school premises at all times, which move from public to semi-private is especially important during the spaces or from group to individual rainy season when many roads are spaces. inaccessible in some areas. 3 .4.2 Dwellings 3 .4.3 Landscaping In certain settings, teachers’ houses Of the many costs of building a child- of adequate quality, function and size friendly school, landscaping is likely may be offered, depending on policy to be among the lowest, yet it has one and resources. The importance of of the greatest influences on school 13 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
Standards used in the SWASTHH1 guidance, and the community was project, Jharkhand (India) involved with plant stock selection, planting and maintenance. Generally, ELEMENT STANDARD/NORM the plant stock should be local and Compound wall The compound wall must known to the community. This is cover the school area and be another opportunity to enhance a strong enough to keep out sense of community ownership. intrusions or threats (e.g., from Creative landscaping has a relatively cattle). low cost but a high impact on the Toilet Two toilets separated by appearance of the final child-friendly gender and two urinals per school. 250 children. Safe drinking Three litres per child per day. 3 .4.4 Hygiene, sanitation, water water Facilities for Specific area with water and It seems obvious that facilities for hand washing soap. Recycling water should children require different dimensions be part of the overall design. than those for adults. Nevertheless, Play area A clear, level area for sports ‘adult-size’ designs are too often that can accommodate at least used for schools, and even where one class per session. Sports these are adapted, the changes are equipment is recommended. usually minimal. Important details are overlooked, and the fact that children Gardens A designated area for plants, fruits and vegetables. The have different physical abilities than harvest will be used for the adults tends to be ignored. In the midday meal. Children should design of child-friendly schools, participate in the maintenance child-sized adaptations of toilet seats, and recording of vegetable urinals, taps, doorknobs, locks and yield to promote a sense of handrails are crucial. Equally important ownership. is adapting to physical abilities by Garbage A designated area for garbage considering the weight of doors and disposal disposal and a compost toilet covers, the strength needed to system; dustbins and brooms open taps and fetch water. In schools are needed. Children must with a large age spread in the student participate in cleaning and body, separate facilities for younger maintaining the classroom. children, older children and teachers are recommended. When the same 1 SWASTHH stands for School Water and Sanitation towards Health and Hygiene. facilities are used by different age groups, special provisions can be made to allow smaller children to aesthetics. While most agree that make use of the facilities, such as a ‘good’ landscaping is of high value, the step in front of the toilet seat or an actual design, plant selection, garden additional seat cover with a smaller preparation and maintenance are not hole. simple or straightforward. In India, for instance, the rebuilding period after Additionally, special adaptations the Gujarat emergency in 2001 was for disabled schoolchildren must the first time that local agricultural be incorporated into the design and institutions were consulted for design the location of water and sanitation 14 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
facilities. Too often, the needs of women are not to be seen when children with disabilities are ignored entering a toilet. At the same time, or simply forgotten. young women are afraid of being harassed or assaulted in secluded When dealing with hygiene, sanitation areas. This requires balancing different and water, it is also important that considerations, setting priorities and the facilities be accessible, which participatory decision-making. Design will encourage hygienic behaviour can become difficult when these and reduce the spread of diseases at aspects conflict and different users school. Too often being ‘hygienic’ is have different preferences. Even a so complex, because of bad design, well-designed facility risks not being that many children fail to practise used if its location has been poorly good hygiene. Therefore, water and considered. sanitation facilities should be simple and easy to use. 3.4.5 Early childcare facilities Construction needs that will ensure ample, accessible water and sanitation A key component of the continuum capacity should be calculated not just between child-friendly schools and on the basis of the total number of local communities is linking the care students, but also on other factors, of younger children who are not yet such as the school timetable, ratio in school with these schools. When of girls to boys, projected growth early childcare is located within of the school population and other or near the school, older children developments. For instance, in early who are attending school can leave childhood centres and lower primary their younger siblings at the centre. schools (up to age 8 or 9) sharing This frees older siblings to attend of toilets by boys and girls may be school and ensures that the younger possible. children are not brought into already overcrowded first-year classrooms. Natural lighting and ventilation of In emergencies, these centres can toilets are important for cleanliness provide parents and siblings with and removal of bad odours. There an opportunity to be involved in should be enough light to inspect activities outside the crisis, reducing for cleanliness; therefore, the use their depression and despair. Because of natural light is recommended, in young children provide moments of combination with light colours for the pleasure and joy that bring back a interior. To ensure proper ventilation, sense of normalcy, they are a source at least two openings are needed. of healing for many families. Young children appreciate small Essential considerations in creating openings at eye level. An opening in early childcare facilities include: the door allows a teacher to move the latch from the outside if a child Separate facilities: Early childcare accidentally gets locked in. centres need not be official buildings, but should be dedicated, protected Finding the right location requires spaces. They need plenty of light and looking at different practical, air, and should include smaller-sized environmental and cultural aspects. In toilets, a cooking space and storage some Islamic countries, for instance, for supplies and materials. They need 15 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
to be free of hazardous objects and such as different flooring materials, protected from the elements. wall textures or colours; or by changes in lights or ceiling or floor height. Such Caregivers based on ratio and age: separate, well-defined boundaries Supervision is critical for keeping support social interaction, encourage children safe and engaged in age- exploratory behaviour and prevent appropriate activities. The ratio of interruption of ongoing play. In children to caregiver depends on their general, the classroom should have at age, the facility and the country’s least four distinct activity zones: resources. However, there should be no more than 20 children per caregiver • Gross motor skill zone. Toddlers in the 4- to 6-year-old range, 10 per and preschool-age children need caregiver for the 2- to 3-year-old range space where they can dance, climb, and 4 per caregiver for infants. jump and move things about. The area should be large enough to Space: A childcare centre needs to be accommodate structures, such as a sufficiently large to give each child slide or tunnel, and open enough to space to move and explore. Children allow for riding and push-and-pull in these age ranges do not have to toys. be seated in chairs, but could instead have mats to sit on, materials to learn • ramatic-play zone. Make-believe D from and room to play on their own and imagination are important for or in small groups. An early learning pre-kindergarteners. Providing environment involves a combination props, such as kitchen appliances, of teacher-directed and child-directed living room furniture or a theatre activities. area, encourages such play. While the dramatic-play zone should be Research has shown that well- adjacent to the gross motor skill zone functioning early childhood to allow for easy movement between centres are not just scaled-down the two, a clear division between the elementary schools or simply spaces should be visible to promote open play spaces. Early childhood a sense of semi-private space. centres must incorporate specific design elements to achieve a safe, • rts and crafts zone. This is the ‘wet’ A enjoyable developmental and area of the room, where children can learning environment. For instance, experiment with sand, water, paint, the centres should allow from 4.5 to paste and other messy materials. 5.5 square metres of space per child, The arts and crafts zone should be with a minimum of 3.8 metres per next to a water source, such as a sink child. A larger classroom improves and gooseneck faucet, and have a programmatic flexibility, provides washable floor. Good lighting is also space so children can engage in important. concurrent quiet and active play, and • uiet zone. Young children need Q decreases aggressive behaviour. personal space that permits Classrooms need to be spatially interaction with an adult caregiver differentiated. Activity areas can be and provides an area for solitary separated by physical objects like play, looking at books or simply movable partitions, open shelves, resting. The quiet zone should have cabinets and plants; or by visual signs carpeting, comfortable chairs and 16 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
pillows, a low bookshelf for books that can endure emergencies. Since and stuffed toys, and a space (out of UNICEF inputs are generally a small reach of toddlers) for objects such as portion of the total rehabilitation and plants or an aquarium. reconstruction effort, the agency should strive to offer practical, Safety: With young children, safety is affordable and innovative designs for a major concern. A group that includes educational facilities that governments older children (6 years old and above) and communities will want to adopt needs to be carefully managed or the on a national scale. young children will be overshadowed and left out. Teachers and caregivers Schools as emergency shelters: must be sure that children do not have Sometimes child-friendly schools sharp objects to play with, that there must go beyond education, acting as are no dangerous places nearby and shelters or gathering places during that there are no contaminants in the emergencies. This is particularly area. Food needs to be served directly common in hurricane-, earthquake- after cooking, not kept for long periods and flood-prone locations. Schools of time. are often the strongest buildings in the community, and they can be 3.4.6 Emergency situations designed to accommodate multiple functions, serving as shelters and In the past, UNICEF built schools classrooms at the same time. It is or advocated school designs in crucial to understand the importance emergency-prone areas that did not of establishing a minimum set of always withstand calamity: Schools standards for schools, especially often collapsed following earthquakes when their main educational function or floods, and those that did survive can be affected by other events and failed to provide adequate shelter. situations. UNICEF now advocates a range of The dual-function model can reduce innovative designs based on ‘disaster the amount of time children are forced risk reduction’ for child-friendly to be out of school. Many children environments, while at the same spend months, even years, out of time respecting existing customs school when their classrooms are and practices. In the Philippines, being used as shelters. Regardless for instance, schools rebuilt after of whether an emergency situation typhoons now have more durable exists, all designs should consider design and construction elements. the specific emergency profile of These schools have also been a given locale. Some locations are designed to provide temporary flood prone, others susceptible to shelter for adults in an emergency, drought, earthquakes or hurricanes; while allowing for school activities to still others have been engaged in continue at certain times of the day. long-term civil or military conflict. While radical innovation may be Many locations have multiple- rejected by local communities or risk profiles, and a design that is governments, lockstep adherence good for some conditions may be to existing designs that no longer disastrous if used in the presence work is counter to creating schools of others – for example, using 17 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
lightweight prefab materials made for is particularly high risk, then the earthquake conditions in a high-wind designs will need to be independently zone. During the process of defining evaluated for compliance with the the hazard profile, it is important to profile. In the case of post-emergency define these conditions in such a way reconstruction, construction designs that they can be fully and objectively should be professionally reviewed by evaluated by architects, suppliers independent, qualified institutions to and contractors. If the hazard profile confirm their safety. These evaluations Diagram 3: TYPICAL CLASSROOM Cross SECTION 1 2 + 2,600 mm 4 3 5 Gable walls 6 7 Blackboard 8 2,100 mm x 1,200 mm 9 1,450 mm 10 Concrete floor 80 mm + 30 mm sand/cement finish 11 0 mm* 12 13 Selected fill in two layers of 150 mm each; for black -250 mm cotton (expansive) soil, compressed sand bed. 14 -600 mm** 6,500 mm at centre 15 KEY: 1. Galvanized corrugated steel sheets and 10. Stabilized block bench or fired brick with ridge, gauge 28.0 hardwood top, up to 450 mm 2. 140 beam truss (slope 22 degrees) with IPE 11. Tie beam, UPE 140 Z-beam purlins 12. Ramp 3. Overhang, 900 mm 13. Anti-termite barrier 4. Truss and column are bolted with M12 bolts 14. Large stone foundation with mortar mix 1:4, 5. Wall plate, UPE 140 or stabilized soil block up to 250 mm above 6. Steel louvre windows, 2,020x2,020 mm field ( including frame), pivotal at 300 mm from 15. Drainage, cement tile, 600x600x50 mm, with top gravel, 1,200 width, 300 mm depth 7. Light well, 600x1,900 mm, provides light when louvres are closed * Finished floor 8. Steel pipe, 20 mm ** Depth depends on depth of hard core 9. Column, steel pipe 125 mm or IPE 140 anchored to foundation 18 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
are available from numerous teachers and orphans with HIV or engineering universities. Meeting AIDS was situated close to the school the hazard profile is an important campus. Vegetable gardens and trees benchmark with the government and were planted nearby. In the campus local communities and can assure that model, the perimeter is open. Spaces the child-friendly school will survive the are designed to be highly visible so hazards it faces. that community members can take responsibility for each other’s security. Campuses and compounds: The need The campus boundaries are additionally for complex, integrated services for secured by fencing and a guard. children in emergencies has given rise to new ways of thinking about security, The central focus on children’s return schooling and even housing. Innovative to normal routines such as schooling designs, often building upon local also encourages adults to look beyond knowledge and skills, place services for the tragedies of the moment to the children at the centre of the community protection of their children. There within protective circles. is an urgent need to integrate the government’s emergency preparedness In Malawi, for instance, the complex with child policies. For example, child- problems created by HIV and AIDS friendly safe learning spaces can morph required innovative solutions. Thus, into child-friendly schools and child- schools and recreation spaces were friendly communities. Early childcare placed in the same compound as centres and nurseries can sprout within medical services, and housing for the same school grounds as the child- Malawi: Permanent school in Mphunga Schools in Malawi are usually constructed from locally burned bricks, corrugated sheets and wooden beams supporting roofs of corrugated sheets. Such construction leads to environmental problems. The technology used for burning bricks is primitive, causing over-consumption of wood and increased deforestation. Roof beams, even if treated, are soon damaged by termites. Classrooms are too hot, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. They are suitable neither as learning spaces for children nor as working places for teachers. Education quality is deteriorating. UNICEF, in collaboration with Norwegian Authorities, chose an innovative technology based on the use of heavy-duty aluminium structure as a load- bearing construction for roofs and walls. Local grass was used for thatched roofs and walls were made of cement-reinforced mud blocks. Such a combination of traditional and modern materials resulted in well-functioning educational facilities, respecting the Malawian building tradition. Nine classrooms, nine dwellings for teachers, a health clinic, a doctors’ office and voluntary testing centre, and kitchens for school feeding were built, as well as latrines and water points. Construction of one classroom unit of 50 square metres cost about US$4,700. The project resulted in a cool, well-ventilated and properly lit child-friendly school. 19 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
friendly school. Safe learning spaces Emergency and education can reduce the costs of providing professionals have learned that the next generation with access to the most important resource for needed knowledge and skills. the protection of children and of a nation’s human infrastructure is the The child-friendly strategy has commitment that adults bring to been developing through local and the process. Parents in relocation international partnerships during camps are often the first to start emergencies over the past decade. their own schools and learning Built on a human-rights approach spaces to help restore a sense of that affirms the value of individual normalcy, before government or children’s lives, the child-friendly international aid arrives. Aid agencies approach expands existing support and governments can often work networks and resources for children more rapidly and effectively if – families, neighbours, governments they build on local knowledge and and donors. It places a high value on relationships instead of importing the quality of the relationships within more generic programmes packaged these social networks. internationally. Zambia: EduSport school The Kicking AIDS Out (KAO) centre in a rural district north of Lusaka was initiated by the EduSport Foundation, a Zambian non-governmental organization, in June 2005. The EduSport Foundation promotes education through sport, especially football, as a tool through which physical activities, information and education can contribute to HIV and AIDS prevention, particularly among children and young people in rural areas. The first stage of the KAO centre consists of four classrooms and a teacher’s house, totalling 220 square metres. The centre will provide education, dormitories for orphans without relatives, management, health services with a voluntary testing centre, water and sanitation, and food and medicine storage. The innovative approach focuses on food production and skills training meant to provide not only nutrition for students, but also a source of income to cover operational costs. Sports grounds are an important part of the project. The EduSport Foundation plans to establish 10 similar centres throughout Zambia. The local community was involved in the project and responsible for implementing its first stage. The construction took about four weeks. Local materials, such as grass for thatching and mud blocks for walls, were used. The load-bearing structures for walls and roofs are aluminium; the floors are concrete slab. The construction cost of a classroom (50 square metres) was US$4,700. The centre, to be developed in stages and in accordance with funding, is a child-friendly school model, offering safe care to orphans. The community will be responsible for the centre’s operation with support from the EduSport Foundation. 20 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
Diagram 4: KICKING AIDS OUT ­ — EDUSPORT CENTRE IN ZAMBIA Sports ground Access road (volleyball, basketball) Fruit farm Gardening Sports ground (games) 7 6 1 2 4 5 8 9 3 School courtyard (games) 8 8 8 8 3 3 3 3 15 Access road Sports ground 12 11 14 14 10 (football, athletics) 13 13 16 14 14 Technical core 17 (water, electrical power) 18 19 Animal husbandry KEY: 1. Management 11. Sanitation (staff) 2. Security guard technical service 12. Medicine storage 3. Classrooms 13. Food storage 4. Skills training 14. Sanitation (students) 5. Teacher’s house 15. Kitchen 6. Voluntary testing and counselling 16. Chicken run 7. Ward 17. Rabbits 8. Accommodations (students) 18. Goats 9. Guest house 19. Pigs 10. Staff house 21 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
India: After the earthquake A massive earthquake struck the Indian state of Gujarat on 26 January 2001. The earthquake registered 7.9 on the Richter scale, according to the United States Geological Survey, killing at least 17,000 people and leaving more than 700,000 homeless. Early estimates valued the total damage at approximately US$1.2 billion. More than 12,000 schools, 800 anganwadis (early childcare centres) and many health institutions were severely damaged. In addition to physical and material damage, the earthquake’s devastation directly affected nearly 3 million children and 2.5 million women. As many as 1,000 students were killed in the city of Bhuj alone. An estimated 200,000 children enrolled in the schools in Kutch district were affected, and nearly 800 schools were damaged. According to the Indian Office for Disasters, the situation called for community-based care for the entire region, especially for the vulnerable. The Gujarat earthquake occurred in a region where the frequency and intensity of earthquakes were well documented (Zone V on the national and international measurement scales), as were risks for cyclonic winds up to 150 kph, drought and flash flooding. It was important to know these risks before undertaking the reconstruction process, because such risks dramatically affect design requirements and the cost and complexity of construction. For example, many sites in the Gujarat reconstruction required high plinth construction due to flash flooding. Also, it should not be assumed that the particular emergency condition being addressed presents the most difficult design or engineering challenge: In Gujarat, the additional strength needed to comply with Zone V earthquake resistance was not as difficult or as costly as compliance with the wind-load factors required for cyclonic winds up to 150kph. UNICEF supported the construction of the schools, using the occasion as an opportunity to demonstrate the concept of child-friendly spaces. The first buildings were designed to be cyclone and earthquake resistant, highlighting the importance of safe, secure learning environments. Equity issues were also important. Some of the new features introduced included ramps for the physically challenged, separate toilets for boys and girls, drinking-water facilities, fencing, and school furniture for students and teachers. Children were engaged in planting trees and growing school gardens wherever possible. Schools were also used to demonstrate water conservation. All told, 169 schools, consisting of 610 classrooms, were built using child- friendly learning space designs. The new infrastructure showed a positive impact on both enrolment and attendance. The review team identified these schools as useful models to demonstrate child-friendly spaces with separate toilets for boys and girls, school gardens, play areas and potable water. 22 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
3.5 Factors influencing design 3.5.1 Gender Obstructions should also be eliminated from the school grounds. The sports Just as it is in other parts of society, and extra-curricular areas, shaded gender discrimination is pervasive outdoor lunch and learning spaces in schools and learning spaces. In and school gardens should be made many cases, discrimination is related handicapped-accessible. Circulation to cultural beliefs and traditions. paths and routes must be accessible Sometimes it is caused by failure to everyone, and their surfaces should to recognize problems and needs. be maintained regularly, especially Although it has been stated that during the rainy season. The design adolescent girls drop out of school needs to follow established norms for because they lack separate facilities, accessibility while being sensitive to so far, none of these claims have been overall aesthetics, all of which usually supported by studies or quantitative adds a small amount to the final cost. evidence. What has been shown is that Design considerations are not enough, inappropriate provisions for school however: Teachers and other school hygiene, sanitation and water do affect personnel must be reminded of their adolescent schoolgirls’ absenteeism responsibilities to disabled children. (a first step towards dropping out of school) and their sustained interest in 3.5.3 Climate schooling. Analysis of the microclimatic aspects 3.5.2 Access for the disabled of a site will influence the design (form, shape, mass, colours, order), the For the approximately one in five of orientation of buildings and the choice the world’s poorest people who are of building technologies, construction disabled, access to basic services is a details and materials for the school, daily struggle. The concept of access and the layout and organization of the for the disabled is often unknown in learning spaces. rural or poor urban school/learning space settings. Wheelchair access A study in Bam (Iran), for instance, ramps in a child-friendly school may found that its harsh bioclimatic be the first acknowledgement of the conditions – a dry-hot zone with existence of disabled children in the regular strong, dust-laden winds community and of their right to attend and temperatures reaching up to 50 school. With only small adjustments degrees Celsius – called for specific (for example, a ramp) schools can be design guidelines for child-friendly made accessible for these children. environments that included orienting There also should be wider doors buildings along the east-west axis, (1,000 millimetres) and adequate heavy external and internal walls, corridor space in which to manoeuvre use of water and plants to produce a wheelchair; plinths or doorsteps humidity, utilization of north winds for obstructing entrance to classrooms air circulation and cooling in summer, and offices should be avoided. and use of verandas, porches, trellises, 23 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
and trees to produce comfortable, the financial outlays of donor and shaded places for children. government. But reducing costs does not necessarily translate into good results. In Sierra Leone, for instance, 3.5.4 Cost of infrastructure the costs of a child-friendly pavilion loft classroom were extensively Putting non-governmental reduced due to the large community- organizations or village education input component. The cost went from committees in charge of school around US$10,000 or US$12,000 for a construction promotes community conventional classroom of 54 square participation and also reduces cost. metres to an average of US$5,000 Reliance on ‘community contribution for the child-friendly classroom of of labour for construction’ shifts the an average 100 square metres of social cost to communities and reduces learning space including play/learning Diagram 5: Plan 1: Existing classroom Basic Improvements Stairs • asy exit provided by the second E door • etter cross ventilation by adding B windows and wall openings • Deck for outdoor activities • Garden • Separate toilets for boys and girls • Multi-activity classroom • Veranda for shaded area Plan 2: Improved classroom Veranda Bio-fence Ramp Garden Outlook deck Toilets 24 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
Gender-sensitive school design Several factors need to be taken into consideration in designing schools that address girls’ needs. During menstruation, most low-income women in developing countries use cloth or rags to absorb blood, materials that can cause bad odours and are subject to leaking. In some cultures and among the very poor, women might use no means at all to absorb menstrual blood. Spending long hours at school without being able to wash properly can be an inconvenience to menstruating women and cause them embarrassment. Both schoolgirls and female teachers will opt to stay away from school on those days, resulting in absenteeism for 10 per cent to 20 per cent of school time. Consequently, girls fall behind in learning, which may very well be the first step towards dropping out. Children begin to become aware of their development and physical changes at prepubescence (age 10 to 12). This awareness creates a need for gender- related privacy, which becomes particularly acute when toilet use and menstruation are concerned. If no privacy is provided, children will choose to look for an informal private place or wait until after school hours. In situations when they need to go to the toilet frequently, such as during episodes of diarrhoea, they prefer not to attend school rather than use facilities where others who see their ‘embarrassing’ condition may tease them. decks and loft (micro-library). But the tasks, such as repainting, can be done buildings were never finished – a stark by adults with help from the children. reminder that shifting social cost does Allocation of funds for the ongoing not necessarily reduce or eliminate upkeep of the school should be the cost. It further underscores the decided by the democratically elected importance of overall management. school board. No matter how well a school is designed and built, it will not function Construction budget: School smoothly if it is not well managed and construction costs should normally maintained. be determined by the basic standards for the design, labour costs and the Planning must also adequately budget cost of materials for the child-friendly for the cost of maintenance. Once the school (Dierkx, 2003). But these cost child-friendly school is completed, its factors can vary greatly depending regular cleaning and maintenance can on circumstances. The abundance involve children. Sweeping, yard work of and access to local materials and and other chores can be part of the local building skills can encourage daily schedule and can involve even strong community involvement if the young children. When the school has culture of community participation is active relationships with parents and well rooted. On the other hand, the other community members, many reality of poor infrastructure (roads, of the larger maintenance and repair communication), lack of security, 25 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
absence of local building skills and prices have stabilized. It may also be materials, and a limited history of useful to explore partnerships with community participation may result in non-governmental organizations and a monopoly for certain construction not-for-profit organizations that provide firms, especially when there is a construction services. demand for construction work by the government and the international Maintenance budget: Governments development community. As a result, have neglected budgeting for such locally ‘overheated’ construction maintenance costs in the past, resulting markets spawn inflated prices for in the need to replace classrooms school construction. If this inflation faster than their expected design life. exists, it may be wise to wait until the Relying just on the community can be construction market has relaxed and problematic, since the cost of effective CASE STUDY 1 LOCATION The location of schools or any new extensions within the school compound must be a conscious design exercise that takes into account different aspects of the basic planning process. The movement of the sun, direction of the wind, soil capacity, proximity to the seashore or riverbank, existence of a water source and questions of accessibility are just some of the important factors to be considered in designing and building a school. The photograph shows a relatively new toilet facility at Ban Thalaenok School in the south of Thailand. The facility was designed in Bangkok without a proper site survey. There was no site visit to determine existing conditions and identify the best location for the new toilets in relation to the rest of the school. As a result, the toilets were built next to a steep staircase that leads to the canteen. They are completely inaccessible because of the grade difference. The person in the photograph is a 41-year-old teacher trying to climb to urinals meant for 5- to 11-year-old primary students. The toilets, never used, stand as a testament to a missed opportunity to improve children’s lives. © UNICEF/2007/Vasquez 26 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
maintenance is often out of reach for maintaining the school grounds and many communities. When deciding buildings before things break down on construction standards, materials’ or the grounds become inaccessible durability should be the key factor. or polluted (flooding, soil-erosion, Government budgets for classroom solid and fluid waste) prevents construction should include financing damage and the extra cost of dealing for maintenance throughout the life with preventable problems. This of the school building. However, a type of preventive maintenance is ‘culture of maintenance’ is not yet just as important as the periodic or fully rooted in many nations and scheduled maintenance over the life needs to be strengthened at all school of a building. levels. For example, cleaning and CASE STUDY 2 CONSTRUCTION In a natural disaster, victims usually deal with both the forces of nature and the damage left in their wake. Homes, hospitals and schools can be destroyed by earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones. Therefore, school reconstruction must be guided by prevention rather than response. Reducing risk in emergencies can save hundreds, even thousands, of children. © UNICEF/2008/Vasquez Schools that are structurally sound can also serve as shelters for the entire community. Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in May 2008, had devastating consequences. More than 140,000 people were killed or missing. Women, especially, were the cyclone’s victims, ravaging the stability of the social network. Many of the devastated schools showed signs of poor maintenance or of negligent supervision during their construction. Yet, in many schools, rafters, trusses and concrete foundations were found intact. These ‘parts’ had been built to specifications, but the interconnection of the parts was weak: Rafters were not properly connected to the brick walls with metal straps, or wood connections were © UNICEF/2008/Vasquez done improperly. Wood posts that were not treated for humidity and water damage were rotten, further weakening the connection of the superstructure and foundation. These pictures show intact rafters blown away and badly maintained wood posts still attached to the foundation. 27 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
CASE STUDY 3 DESIGN Designing a school goes beyond planning a building with four walls, windows and a door. A school must be adapted to the specific conditions of the local community and the geographical characteristics of the site; it must be concerned with the local economy and projections of demographic growth. Primary schools in Myanmar, which have five grades, use a multigrade system within the classroom. A school may have one big classroom for all five grades and only three teachers, all conducting classes simultaneously. When building new classrooms, the challenge in Myanmar was to provide separate spaces for the students while minimizing the walking distance for teachers between classrooms. Five separate classrooms were not feasible, and one classroom was inadequate. The new classroom design provides two separate spaces with a ‘nucleus’ to accommodate two teachers. (See diagram below.) For now, one teacher can supervise two grades with separate entrances and a reading corner, allowing for reduced noise levels. A primary school could have three of these structures with three teachers. If the Government increases faculty hiring, the schools would be ready to receive two more teachers and achieve the optimum ratio of one teacher per grade. Veranda Classroom 264 square feet Stairs Books Nucleus Books Stairs Classroom 264 square feet Veranda 28 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
3.6 Design with involvement of all 3.6.1 Users government counterpart, ministry of education, representatives of the Active involvement of users is essential construction trades and community in all phases of the design process. In leaders. Community expectations are most countries, standardized designs likely to be the least articulated in the for schools reduce costs and control planning and discussions that lead to quality. Using them can be a good a final design. This can result in critical solution, but applying a standard design errors. too rigidly can actually drive up costs. In general, when properly coached Consulting by convenience may and guided, potential users are able to overlook design needs. Child-friendly assess their existing practices and find school/spaces may be built where solutions for their own needs. Their there are no pre-existing schools involvement during the design stage or where previous schools have will lead to better solutions and increase had restricted enrolments that have acceptance of these solutions. denied entry to minority subgroups. It is therefore essential for the project team to know the full complement 3.6.2 Gender needs of communities being served and, to the extent possible, address their Besides having different physical expectations of their new school. This needs than boys and men, women is a time-consuming step that is easily and girls may have different roles in overlooked in the rush to show progress society and thus different points of to donors and governments. It is a step, view and knowledge. When women however, that can make the difference and girls are not adequately involved in between community ownership with school planning, design, construction, excellent outcomes and complete operation and maintenance, their rejection of a costly investment. opinions and needs may not be identified and included. Girls and boys, The CFS ideal is to see that all children female and male teachers, and mothers are equitably offered high-quality and fathers must be equally represented education. This cannot be accomplished during decision-making activities. The simply by completing smart-looking school environment is a model of the new schools. The slow process of community as a whole and is therefore meeting and understanding community the place where children learn about issues is a wise investment, one that gender roles and cooperation between reaps other benefits. As a school site is women and men. approaching completion, for instance, the risks of theft and vandalism dramatically increase. Providing 24- 3.6.3 Partners hour security to multiple remote sites is generally impossible, but if the local The child-friendly school project team community has been consulted and is must meet multiple expectations, in agreement with the project, it may including those of the donor, partner, provide site protection gratis. 29 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
Schools with a twist: on site, it takes seven to eight weeks Taking community schools to construct one school at a cost of to children in rural Sierra just over US$5,000. Each entity in the partnership makes a contribution: Leone Communities provide manual labour and local materials (sand, stones In Sierra Leone, an estimated 375,000 and bush sticks); parents ensure that school-age children, mostly girls, live children enrol and attend school; in poor, remote communities with no the education ministry recruits and access to educational facilities. The pays teachers; and GMC coalition country’s brutal civil war destroyed members pay for skilled labour much of the education infrastructure. and mobilize communities. UNICEF Moreover, the end of the war sparked provides the overall coordination, such a surge in school enrolment, contributes construction materials, especially among over age children, trains teachers and supplies that there is no room for younger educational materials. ones. The community school initiative is To address the needs of younger an innovative, low-cost, sustainable children who cannot walk long approach to education that makes distances, a strategy was developed use of a broad partnership and high- to take schools to children in their level community involvement. “This own communities over a four-year is a new thing that has come to our period. A partnership – composed of community,” said Chief Sullay Turay, UNICEF; the Ministry of Education, the head of Rorinka community, Science and Technology; the Global Bombali District. “Our little children Movement for Children coalition in can now attend school without Sierra Leone (GMC-Sierra Leone); waiting until they are 10 years old to and the communities themselves be able to walk to the nearest school. – agreed to support low-cost, child- Indeed, this is development.” friendly school facilities that would quickly get rural children into school. This initiative has proved that partnerships do work and that even The first phase established 410 poor communities can be effectively community schools designed for engaged in developing education grades 1 to 3. These children would opportunities for their children. In then be mainstreamed into larger post-conflict countries like Sierra primary schools as they grew older Leone, taking affordable and and could walk longer distances. sustainable schools to children is one step in helping the country meet UNICEF supported the design of its commitment to the Millennium an elegant facility – a simple one- Development Goal of having all classroom, integrated, multipurpose children complete a full course of pavilion that incorporates various primary education by 2015. activities from formal learning for children and adults to community Source: UNICEF Country Office theatre. It features two activity decks Sierra Leone 2005 Annual Report. and a loft that serves as an office and micro library. Once all materials are 30 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
3.7 Remaining challenges 3.7.1 Low cost programming, such as after a tsunami or earthquake, a three-track New materials and technologies modality could be followed, each with combined with appropriate traditional a specific timeline: technologies often are the best architectural and technical solutions 1. Rapid multidisciplinary response for school construction given the team – short cycle, from three local climate, culture and socio- weeks to three months, with economic circumstances. Technology various experts from education, choices made by governmental health, child protection, water policymakers and decision makers and sanitation, environmental are often based on their perception planning and community of ‘what development is and what planning, as well as an economist, it is not’. However, they often lack architect, engineer or logistics knowledge of the immediate and expert; longer-term implications of a specific 2. Midterm multidisciplinary ‘technology package’ choice. For response team – longer example, a high-tech solution implies term, from 3 to 24 months, building materials and methods that with experts drawn from UN are usually not found nearby and agencies to enhance inter-agency are often costly. It also implies that cooperation; foreign expertise and contractors must be hired, which adds to 3. Long-term implementation – after the costs. It usually means that 24 months, elements of child- maintenance or ‘spare parts’ are not friendly schools that are to be known or not easily available, and sustained in post-emergency that further drives up costs. Often a programming can be integrated blend of technologies, selected by into programmes. the child-friendly school team and the ministerial school planning unit, The multidisciplinary teams ensure offers the most effective solution. that planning, development and This blend will vary according to the implementation of child-friendly country and the specific case, and will school interventions are holistic be one of the most influential factors and harmonize educational, social, in the final cost. cultural, economical, technological, safety, health and environmental aspects. 3.7.2 Multidisciplinary teams The child-friendly schools programme 3.7.3 Provision of land for must explore the formation of schools multidisciplinary, self-reliant teams that could be deployed on short In areas where there has never been notice and cover the whole breadth of a school, it will be difficult to obtain the sector-wide education approach a centrally located plot of land that (SWAP). In emergency education allows for the common location 31 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
of a school, early childcare centres, 3.7.4 Schools in general sport areas and a close community community improvement connection. In some cases, local projects governments will allocate the least desirable land for school construction. When development banks or other In these cases, it is imperative to obtain major financers undertake projects an environmental study of the land to to improve communities, schools are determine the presence of hazardous often left out because they fall under materials. the responsibility of the education ministry and other ministries are not authorized to undertake projects within the school compound. Removing these boundaries would allow schools to be part of major improvement projects that generally fall into other areas, such as water and sanitation, road improvement and electrical supply. 3.7.5 Coordination Donor agencies and organizations should reach a common agreement on cost recovery and community participation for school construction. Questions arise, such as: Are communities required to provide unskilled labour and transportation of supplies, or will all work be subcontracted? Must the community provide the land for school construction, or must the organization buy it? Does the community arrange and pay for school toilets and water supply? These questions are relevant in all programme settings but especially in emergency situations. © UNICEF/NYHQ2007-1374/Pirozzi 32 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
Table of Contents Chapter 3 Location, design and construction 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 General approach and key considerations 3.1.2 Basic elements for a good school 3.1.3 Additional elements for a child-friendly school 3.2 Pedagogy and design 3.2.1 Classrooms 3.2.2 Facilities 3.2.3 Outdoor spaces 3.3 Locating schools or learning spaces 3.3.1 School size and location 3.3.2 Mobility 3.3.3 Assessment of topographical risk 3.4 Additional elements in design 3.4.1 Clustering 3.4.2 Dwellings 3.4.3 Landscaping 3.4.4 Hygiene, sanitation, water 3.4.5 Early childcare facilities 3.4.6 Emergency situations 3.5 Factors influencing design 3.5.1 Gender 3.5.2 Access for the disabled 3.5.3 Climate 3.5.4 Cost of infrastructure 3.6 Design with involvement of all 3.6.1 Users 3.6.2 Gender needs 3.6.3 Partners 3.7 Remaining challenges 3.7.1 Low cost 3.7.2 Multidisciplinary teams 3.7.3 Provision of land for schools 3.7.4 Schools in general community improvement projects 3.7.5 Coordination
For more information, please contact: Education Section Programme Division, UNICEF Published by UNICEF Division of Communication 3 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017, USA Website: www.unicef.org Email: pubdoc@unicef.org © United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) March 2009

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Chapter3

  • 1.
  • 2.
    Table of Contents Chapter3 Location, design and construction 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 General approach and key considerations 3.1.2 Basic elements for a good school 3.1.3 Additional elements for a child-friendly school 3.2 Pedagogy and design 3.2.1 Classrooms 3.2.2 Facilities 3.2.3 Outdoor spaces 3.3 Locating schools or learning spaces 3.3.1 School size and location 3.3.2 Mobility 3.3.3 Assessment of topographical risk 3.4 Additional elements in design 3.4.1 Clustering 3.4.2 Dwellings 3.4.3 Landscaping 3.4.4 Hygiene, sanitation, water 3.4.5 Early childcare facilities 3.4.6 Emergency situations 3.5 Factors influencing design 3.5.1 Gender 3.5.2 Access for the disabled 3.5.3 Climate 3.5.4 Cost of infrastructure 3.6 Design with involvement of all 3.6.1 Users 3.6.2 Gender needs 3.6.3 Partners 3.7 Remaining challenges 3.7.1 Low cost 3.7.2 Multidisciplinary teams 3.7.3 Provision of land for schools 3.7.4 Schools in general community improvement projects 3.7.5 Coordination
  • 3.
    CHAPTER 3 Location, Designand Construction Construction projects provide ample ways to play a strong role in the overall plan: ensuring community participation in the process; ensuring adherence to child-friendly principles in building design and construction; and ensuring that the end results contribute to realizing goals for children and women. [Education agencies] that decide to engage in construction, therefore, must go beyond the mere ‘bricks and mortar’ aspects, and also take into account ‘software’ aspects in the planning. These include the maintenance and use of facilities, the quality of services, how the community is mobilized, the extent and nature of community participation. All of these should be determinants of success for [agency-assisted] construction projects. In short, whether or not to engage in construction is a programmatic decision. Extract adapted from Construction Guidance Note (Draft), UNICEF Programme Division, October 2006 , 3.1 Introduction Child-friendly schools are not maintenance of new child-friendly architectural phantoms from a schools and the important factors strange place. They are schools with for renovating and adjusting existing attributes typically associated with schools to make them child-friendly. good schools in many countries. The approach centres on the child, However, they have additional the main user of these learning elements that complement and spaces and environments, with reinforce the principles and practices the understanding that family of the child-friendly approach and community participation is to education. fundamental for best results. In this regard, the main objectives in child- This chapter examines the planning friendly school planning are: and design of new spaces and environments for child-friendly • Attract students (increase access); schools and sets out quality planning • Improve attendance rates; standards for improving existing • mprove retention and completion I schools and temporary structures rates; used as schools. It focuses on location, design, construction, operation and • Improve learning achievement; 1 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
  • 4.
    • Provide safe,inclusive, welcoming prominence in design considerations environments for all children; for a child-friendly school. This will help reinforce the child’s self-identity • Provide enabling learning and promote a sense of belonging to a environments, including place and group. accommodating children with physical and mental/learning disabilities; When their architecture is a reflection of the community, culture, natural • Build a sense of community within environment and the family, the school (institutional ethos); schools are more than just shells or physical structures. When a school • Involve parents and the community is envisioned and created with the (support and participation); child at its centre and supported by • Cultivate harmony between the the family and the community, the school and its community; physical structures become interactive places to learn and teach – places • Harmonize buildings, school where teachers facilitate and manage grounds and environment as the learning process and students children interact with them. learn and explore new possibilities that match their abilities and potential. 3.1.1 General approach and key The school becomes an integrated, considerations holistic system that retro feeds itself from the surrounding elements, giving A structure for learning (school) and it an identity. It is this dimension that its immediate environment (school promotes community ownership of grounds) must offer basic minimum schools and gives schools a sense of standards to encourage and facilitate belonging to the communities they the main objectives of a child-friendly serve. This dimension is one of the school. These have much in common most essential considerations for the with any good school; therefore the design of child-friendly schools. child-friendly school needs to be conceived as an improvement on Schools must be anchored in the the basics of existing good schools. reality of their location in terms of A child-friendly school also must culture, environment and links to respond to the environmental and families and the community. But if that cultural context of its location. A were all, schools would be parochial universal, standardized approach places antithetical to learning that does not respond to the unique is grounded in the total heritage of characteristics of a place and culture human knowledge. Schools are not and could result in detachment and simply a means of learning about local alienation of the community. reality; they are also the gateways to the legacy of human endeavours and School marks an important early possibilities. milestone in the child’s lifelong journey of intellectual and School architecture should promote psychosocial development. Therefore, harmony with local reality while an understanding of the child’s own also incorporating the best external culture and environment should have influences. A remote, rural school, 2 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
  • 5.
    for instance, shouldconform to additional elements that make the its environment but also take difference between a ‘good’ school advantage of such innovations as and a ‘child-friendly’ school. Many modern hygiene practices, popular major catastrophes have provided games and sports, and technology. opportunities to create new school Similarly, a school can reflect the local systems based on CFS principles from authoritative hierarchy and a culture the ashes of old school systems. of respect for elders, while also promoting such values as children’s In Bam (Iran), for example, the participation in their learning process community, families and students and giving them a voice in the worked together on a school design school as a whole. The architecture project to ‘build back better’ after the of the child-friendly school can 2001 earthquake. In examples from promote both harmony with the African countries, new approaches local environment and openness to were implemented not only to design the benefits of external influences. schools but also to achieve active This is an important challenge in community participation in the the architecture and design of any creation, design and construction good school, particularly so for child- of an environmentally sound child- friendly schools. friendly school. The possibilities for design of 3.1.2 Basic elements for child-friendly schools vary among a good school countries and areas. In some cases, there will be extensive parent and The basic planning and design community involvement in all aspects requirements that make for a good of location, design, construction and school are the foundation on which maintenance; the focus could be on further elements can be added to turn using local building materials and them into child-friendly schools. The the skills of community artisans. challenge in many countries goes In other cases, the issue might be beyond simply designing and building conforming to sophisticated building new schools that are child friendly to codes and materials standards as well renovating and converting existing as providing for high-level technical schools into child-friendly schools. supervision of building contractors. The extent of this latter challenge In all cases, the issue is to apply CFS depends on what already exists and principles in order to create a child- whether they are actually ‘good’ friendly school. (See Table 3.2.) schools. Table 3.1 summarizes basic planning and design standards related There are three elements in child to a good school. development that are essential for child-friendly school design – safety, health and nutrition. These three must 3.1.3 Additional elements for be adequately addressed if the school a child-friendly school is to become an inclusive, holistic learning landscape that provides a Theoretical considerations and safe, enabling learning environment practical experience have generated where children can thrive. 3 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
  • 6.
    Table 3.1: BASICPLANNING AND DESIGN STANDARDS FOR EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES Structure The building is to be structurally stable, weatherproof according to local environmental conditions, climatically comfortable, easily exited in case of emergency and well integrated with the environmental and cultural context. Administrative Separate space for faculty/administrative personnel gives privacy to students and teachers and offices maximizes the use of classroom space, enabling staff to work separately from students. Proximity between classrooms and administrative offices is recommended to monitor students’ activities and create ‘safety through transparency’. Safe water Fresh potable water should be available to students within the school. Proper plumbing infrastructure allows for the distribution of safe water. If such a setup is not possible, a borehole/well should be included in the school compound. This can be augmented with a rainwater catchment system in the roof as appropriate. Hygiene A separate space should be provided with water and soap or other cleaning agent for children to wash facilities their hands. Toilets/latrines Separate toilets or latrines should be available for girls and boys. Privacy, cleanliness and safety are major considerations when planning location and design of facilities. Light, air, sun, Classrooms need good fresh-air circulation to avoid heat and excessive humidity. To ensure adequate dust, glare, daylight, a minimum of 20 per cent of the classroom floor area should be window area. Electricity reflection, or another means of power is needed to provide light and to operate equipment. Classrooms must humidity, noise be sufficiently shaded from direct sunlight, glare (direct light) and reflection (indirect light). Schools and odour should not be located close to sources of excessive noise (traffic, railways, industries, informal sector activities) or excessive pollution or odours (waste belts, abattoirs). When this is not possible, design measures should be used to minimize the impact of these problems. Colour Materials and finishes should be the light, natural colours of the materials themselves, selected in harmony with warm natural hues as accents (reds, oranges, maroons, ochres and linen/khaki/off- whites) dictated by local, cultural preferences. For example, timber may be finished using clear varnish to preserve the natural beauty and warmth of the material. Or brighter accents can be used for play corners, decks, corridors and furniture. Learning spaces should be light and relaxed in colour, not gloomy, dull or dark. Power The school should have a power source to provide light, connectivity for communication equipment (electric or (computers, radios, television) and other appliances (refrigerators, stoves). Alternative sources of alternative) energy (solar, wind and biogas) can be integrated into the design of schools where appropriate. Safety Fire prevention and emergency evacuation plans must be part of the design process and built into the provisions school programme. Combustible materials should not be used for structural purposes unless treated to resist fire. Construction materials should be free of components or elements that can be hazardous to children. When construction is finished, school sites should be free of all fluid, solid and gaseous wastes. Schools should not be located close to industrial or other hazards. Health At a minimum, schools should have a first-aid kit or medicine cabinet for basic emergencies or provisions accidents. Proximity to a clinic enables health personnel to visit the school periodically and permits children to be taken to the clinic for treatment of health problems. This proximity is accomplished in many developing countries through clustering the main social service facilities in the same location. Library A designated space where books and learning resources are available in a proper reading environment is central to learning and teaching activities. The library or resource room needs to be strategically located within the school for easy access, but away from noisy areas for a greater degree of quiet. Landscaping School grounds form an integrated, holistic unity with school buildings and their users, but in conventional school planning they are often neglected. Trees are vital for filtering sun, dust and noise and for beautifying the school. Indigenous trees, shrubs and flowers should be planted in the school compound along with edible plants meant to teach children food production and conservation. Trees also have a softening and calming effect on the learning environment and its users. Planning the school landscaping is a good way to involve children in the realization of a child-friendly school. 4 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    Table 3.2: AdditionalFunctional Elements for a child-friendly school Flexible Flexible spaces increase child participation in class and allow teachers to provide a more dynamic spaces environment for learning and teaching. Such spaces provide opportunities for group activities, areas for manual projects and easy access to open spaces. Individual classrooms or other facilities that create outdoor space between structures give students a chance to be in open areas when in transit between classes. Classrooms should be accessible for all children; ramps and wide doorways should be provided for less mobile children. School library In child-friendly schools, the library and resource room is likely to have some connection to the local and resource community. Where it is feasible and in line with school practice, these facilities should be located and room designed so they are accessible to the community. In other cases, skilled and knowledgeable persons in the community may be considered resources for learning about local culture, history and handicrafts. Bathrooms Teachers need to have separate facilities for men and women. For pupils, designated separate bathrooms for boys and girls within or close to the classrooms are the most practical and safest arrangement. These facilities can also be designed and located so that they are shared among clusters of classrooms to protect younger children. Relaxation At the nursery and lower-elementary level, rooms where children can relax are appropriate in the rooms close to design of child-friendly schools. In general, homelike elements next to learning spaces provide a learning areas friendly, inviting atmosphere for this age group. Individual Along with flexible learning spaces for large and small groups (project-based learning/teamwork), spaces individual learning spaces should also be provided, since individual children have their own learning styles and some will need space to be on their own at times to study or reflect. Open spaces Easy access to open spaces from classrooms allows children to be in close contact with their environment and to engage in physical activities. Open spaces can be designed as play yards for sports, school gardens and orchards, decks or verandas for outdoor learning activities, open performance spaces, wide corridors and courtyards, trellises, canopies, shaded pavilions, niches, alcoves, play lofts and enclosed backyards. In typical child-friendly schools, the community would be allowed to use some of these spaces after school hours for town meetings, local gatherings and other events. Kitchen Space for school meal preparation should be designed and provided with equipment and furniture that ensure food is kept fresh and away from flies and other pests that undermine food quality. Clinic Where there is a campus or cluster of social services, having the school near a clinic provides students with general health services and allows for the care of children in need of permanent monitoring of health conditions. Such a health facility would normally serve the entire community, either after school or by providing separate access for school and community patients. This basic link provides a connection between school, community and the family, revolving around the child’s well-being. Protective The protective element of child-friendly school design has two main aspects: • To counteract bullying and abuse, teachers and parents must be trained in non-violent, child-based discipline strategies and interventions. This means no beatings, canings or other humiliating forms of punishment. Designing classrooms and other spaces so that activities are readily visible from the outside can deter child abuse. • Depending on location and context, the enclosure and boundaries of schools can vary in form and function. The goal is to find a balance where a fence can provide protection to the child from outside elements (such as traffic, animals), can define boundaries to keep children within the school and can also serve to section off an area for gardening and orchards. 5 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    3.2 Pedagogy and design Learning is at the heart of schooling, teaching spaces and the selection of and anything that facilitates learning school furniture. should be at the core of school design. This inherent principle gives rise to There are many other factors that key elements in the design of schools. influence a school’s physical design, For instance, it is obvious that healthy such as local environmental and children learn better than sick ones, climatic conditions, building materials, and that children are particularly level and availability of local human vulnerable to illnesses in hostile capacity, resources and priorities. In environments. School design should the same way that the CFS model itself include health protection, which allows is not a blueprint, there is no blueprint children to be at their best. Designated for the design of child-friendly schools, hand-washing areas and first-aid kits, but there are guidelines that illustrate for instance, are important aspects of how child-friendly principles help child-friendly schools. generate standards for high quality in a variety of circumstances. School design must be in tune with children’s normal developmental Experience with child-friendly schools stages. Children learn differently at suggests that school sizes should different stages of development. For ideally be kept to a maximum of 60 instance, younger children do not have to 75 children in preschool, 200 to the same skills, knowledge and ability 400 in elementary school and 600 to to learn complex concepts as older 800 in secondary school. Research children. Developmental differences shows that, compared to large schools are important not only in the design (more than 2,000), small schools (100 of child-friendly schools, but also in to 150 children) offer children greater the selection of teaching/learning opportunities to participate in extra- materials, the creation of learning/ curricular activities and sports and © UNICEF/NYHQ2005-1660/Mohan 6 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    to exercise leadershiproles, critical • afety: Transparency in school S elements of a child-friendly school. design, so people can look inside the classroom and other school Improved school facilities and up-to- units, can protect children from date technology are widely recognized abuse by teachers or older students, to enhance learning, boost students’ particularly during after-school hours. and teachers’ morale, increase (See Chapter 5.) motivation, modernize educational • obile furniture: In child-friendly M methods (interactive self-learning) and schools, mobile furniture replaces enable teachers to focus on facilitating benches or desks that may have learning rather than on confronting been bolted to the floor. The designer problems caused by dated systems. needs to consider the children’s age However, these facilities and modern group, so chairs and desks fit the technology can only bring about students’ sizes comfortably. When improvements if there is also quality seats are movable, children can work teaching, effective management and an alone or in groups. Chairs or stools encouraging environment for children are easier to move around than to engage with such technology. In this benches. regard, experience with child-friendly schools has highlighted the importance • hildren’s home base: Storage C of buildings that encourage flexible, facilities in or near the classroom for participatory approaches and enable children’s class projects, artwork, bags innovative learning and teaching and coats are necessary. Students methodologies through multiple need to have private, lockable storage opportunities for learning, both indoors areas to keep their belongings – even and outdoors. if just a tiny space. • ational and international standards: N 3.2.1 Classrooms Classrooms need blackboards and, in the lowest grades, child- • Size and space: Classrooms can height rails for hanging students’ vary in size and serve different work and posters. The range and functions, with children moving expense of these vary widely. It is from one to another for different best to utilize local material and purposes. Instead of being single- community maintenance. National purpose spaces, they can allow for a and international standards exist and number of different activities, such should be followed. A blackboard as reading, research, group work and and teacher’s desk in front of the art. Direct access to the outdoors from classroom encourages a focus on the the classroom enables children to teacher as the resource for learning. make better use of the outdoors as a If the teacher can move about, giving learning resource, but there should assistance to groups or individual be one or more intermediate spaces students, children will be more (e.g., corridors) that link the outdoors actively involved. with the indoor learning environment. In that way, there will be a range of Before design begins, it is important learning spaces gradually changing to know a country’s existing building in character – and multiple learning regulations. In some countries, the opportunities. government may not have highly 7 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    defined regulations, orthe regulations built on trust. Innovations need to have in use may not reflect current quality tangible value. A full-scale model for standards to protect against potential testing or certification of quality by disasters, such as floods, hurricanes a well-respected institution may be and earthquakes, or against hazardous needed to gain local approval, which conditions or toxic building materials is a crucial first step. Without this and finishes. In that case, the planner approval, construction will likely be should recommend the adoption delayed because of the community’s of international standards for given misgivings about quality and risks. hazardous profiles. Often a country These delays can be costly, can adopts well-accepted building codes damage the contractor’s relationships that may neither conform to the and create negative impressions international codes nor be adequately with funding partners. For this enforced. The project must adopt on- reason, the final architectural design, the-ground standards and practices technical working drawings and and ensure that the codes are construction details, which include enforced. all innovative design decisions, must be reviewed and officially approved A child-friendly school should be before contracts are approved and innovative enough to offer ministries construction begins. and communities a new opportunity to improve education quality. But innovations in space, form and shape, 3.2.2 Facilities construction methods and building materials are sometimes resisted by • Toilets, water for hand washing and the people completing the work. The drinking: Children and teachers need resistance may be from contractors gender-separated toilets and water and materials suppliers who are for hand washing and consumption. unfamiliar with a technique or have not School toilets that provide privacy previously worked with the material, and facilitate menstrual hygiene or it may originate in the Ministry of (personal hygiene rooms) must be Education, the school’s hierarchy or the at a safe location and maintained construction inspection agencies. in a non-discriminatory way. For adolescent girls and female teachers, This resistance can be a particularly washing places must be provided serious issue if the ministry’s pre- with enough water and privacy to existing schools have recently failed wash and dry cloths and rags used during a natural disaster. These during menstruation. Mechanisms catastrophes can reveal that the to provide or replace cloths, pads or school board and local contractors sanitary products for menstruation at did not comply with proper quality school are also helpful. precautions, constituting a possible • ater recycling: Water used for W case of fraud. In such a supercharged hand washing should be recycled atmosphere, the presentation of and used to water the orchards and innovative designs to an embattled vegetable gardens. Human and ministry and construction industry may animal waste could be utilized in the be undermined by negative publicity. production of compost. The type of solutions should correspond to local These situations call for careful, patient conditions and be accepted by the presentations as well as relationships communities. 8 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    • Hygienic areafor food vendors and space with sink and water taps. The school kitchen: Food and nutrition lab needs adequate natural cross are integral elements in educational ventilation and solar shading. programmes and in many ways as important as the school pedagogy. A separate area for a kitchen and the 3.2.3 Outdoor spaces storage of food should be planned from the beginning. Bringing food • ecreational space: Ideally, every R and drink from outside the premises schoolyard should contain enough should be discouraged, because food space for locally popular sports, brought from home or sold at kiosks/ games and extra-curricular activities shops may not have been prepared (drama, singing, dancing) and for hygienically or preserved according school eco-gardens, orchards and to acceptable health standards. farms/woodlots. Children should be involved in laying out the • Storage of medicine: A designated games area since they understand space should be set aside to properly the requirements. When space store medicine. A refrigerated space constraints make organized sports may be required depending on the impossible, it is important to try types of medications. to find alternative spaces within • Health clinic: A doctor’s office the community. Often the space integrated with the school layout available at the school site is limited, can function as a school clinic and and administrators may be driven to community health centre. Like maximize the classroom space at the nutritional status, children’s health is expense of adequate open spaces for crucial to the learning process. children to play. The designer and project team need to be sensitive • IT centre and library: An information to these competing priorities, technology centre should be yet emphasize the importance of equipped with computers, Internet recreation in the overall performance connection and anything else that of the school. Sometimes the child- would allow students and the friendly school replaces damaged community to benefit from access to or destroyed classrooms. In these the World Wide Web. instances, the designer and project team need to balance the urgency • Laboratory: A separate classroom of returning children to class with or an area within the classroom the need to remove waste and can serve as a basic laboratory for create spaces for recreation. A the study of natural sciences. Core small budget for waste removal, areas for a small science cluster land clearance and landscaping by (physics/biology/chemistry) for the local community can reap large both lower and upper primary and rewards. The school does not consist secondary schools should include of buildings alone, but also of the such elements as teacher space, school grounds, which for much display space, charts, an emergency of the year are just as important to shower, outside biology court learning as the buildings themselves. (potted plants, flowers, animals), storage space for equipment, well- • chool grounds and food production: S ventilated storage space for toxic Children can be encouraged to help and acidic waste, a preparation room raise vegetables, fruits, domestic for lab experiments, and clean-up animals and fish, and the school 9 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    grounds can beused to help them • ultifunction open-air stage: When M learn effective methods of food possible, an outdoor stage can serve production and conservation as a classroom and performance (making jams, chutneys, etc.). When space for certain classes or school choosing the foods to produce, it activities. Such a space can also is important to create a culturally function as a meeting place for relevant experience. The production community activities after school should be done in close consultation hours since schools are sometimes with the community. This will help the only places for communities avoid the potential to exploit children to gather. Events may include for school income-generating graduation, opening of the school activities. Apart from the potential year and important holidays that for food production, indigenous parents, teachers and students shrubs, plants and trees on the celebrate at school. school grounds create learning Most child-friendly schools/spaces opportunities and beautify the are in tropical (warm/humid) or arid environment. (dry/hot) environments. Here, the • encing: Planning should take into F use of outdoor spaces for teaching is consideration the need for and type common and should be included in of fencing around a school. Often in the design. Often the school year will rural settings, the school will need to include several months during which be physically separated from the rest study within walled classrooms is of the community in order to create impractical because of high humidity a child-friendly space and maintain or stifling heat. The same school year, that space differently from the rest however, will have months when using of the environment. The fence and enclosed classrooms is necessary. In gates are also important to protect these cases, the design should include the property during non-school verandas or covered shade enclosures hours. In the case of school gardens, that enable the teacher and students to the fence protects the garden from move easily from enclosed rooms to pilferage and animal pests. open spaces. 3.3 Locating schools or learning spaces 3.3.1 School size and location spaces that include flowers, shrubs and trees – the latter as filters of sun, The size of schools, where they are dust and noise and for shaded outdoor placed and the way they are arranged lunches, outdoor learning and beauty. influence learning and how children Traditional school planning rarely relate to one another, adults and considers these issues in the planning the community. Studies show that and design phases. children prefer variety, flexibility and ease of maintenance in schools and Schools and school grounds should learning spaces. In addition, children be an integral part of the learning often state a preference for green process. Buildings are not merely 10 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    shelters; they alsoserve as tools noise, odour, dust, waste belts, for learning and teaching. The size fuel depots, small- and large-scale of each school and the layout and industries, traffic, crime and vandalism. organization of the learning spaces A central location also promotes a and environments should be based on sense of ownership among children physical and curricular needs. Above and community members. all, spaces should be well defined, well proportioned, fit for multiple learning activities and integrated with outdoor munity spaces and environments. Com Diagram 1: Spatial arrangement Child ol Fa m o OS y ch C1 S il C2 T/A G The school should ideally be within walking distance for all children. When children need to use transportation to C3 get to school, the cost increases and poor children are likely to be excluded. Distance is also a major factor in girls’ attendance. In an effort to enrol more children, the government of Uttar Pradesh, India, adopted a walking space arraingement distance of 1.5 kilometres as the norm C Classroom for schools in the plains and Teachers/administration T/A classroom C 1 kilometre in mountainous areas. A + Intermediate spaces T/A teachers/administration study in Egypt (Lone, 1996) showed G Garden 30 per cent enrolment for girls when + OS intermediate spaces Open stage G garden schools were 3 or more kilometres OS open stage from the children’s homes and more than 70 per cent when they were within Decisions about school locations 1 kilometre of home. must involve community members, including students, teachers and The location of child-friendly schools community leaders, along with is important for the safe and proper government representatives from functioning of facilities. The school water and sanitation, health, parks should be located where people live, and recreation, and social welfare. either in the village or settlement it Locations should protect children serves or close to it. This will make from safety, health and environmental interaction between school personnel, hazards, such as flooding, excessive children and parents easier and 11 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    provide a greaterchance to foster comfort. Anti-seismic design in areas teamwork. Child-friendly schools/ prone to earthquakes and hurricane- spaces must signal that teaching proof design in areas with extreme and learning are valued by the winds, tsunamis and natural disasters community. must also be weighed. Diagram 2A: FOOTING FOR 3.3.2 Mobility TIMBER POST Schools do not have to be permanent structures. They can follow children in mobile communities. New schools can be designed to be quickly dismantled and moved with nomadic families to new locations. The telecommunication revolution has spread globally, and countries with rich access to telecommunications have seen a rapid growth in virtual learning communities. Distance learning and cyber-schools and spaces are providing teachers and children in remote areas with access to resources previously unavailable. In Sierra Leone, for instance, teachers use the Internet to request assessment materials from international colleagues. 3.3.3 Assessment of topographical risk Land conditions (such as bearing capacity, landslide risk, slope of terrain), water levels, the amount and intensity of annual rainfall and the potential impact of local winds on school structures should be carefully evaluated prior to selecting the location. A thorough study of microclimatic conditions (bioclimatic analysis) is fundamental to Note: The softer the ground, the deeper understanding the environment and the post should be placed to withstand the basis for good tropical design that wind and movement. addresses children’s and teachers’ 12 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    Diagram 2B: CONCRETEFOOTING DETAILS Mobile school in Namibia The Norwegian Association of Namibia Washer (NAMAS) runs an educational programme Wood plate for the semi-nomadic Himba people in Northern Namibia. The school consists of an administrative centre and 30 mobile classroom tents. Originally, the tents Concrete block core at every were of poor quality – they were too anchor location dark and too hot, and they undermined students’ and teachers’ productivity. Additionally, maintenance costs were high. NAMAS replaced the old tents with Norwegian tents consisting of a heavy- duty aluminium frame and a roof and wall covering of long-lasting sun- and heat-reflecting polyester with a 25-year lifespan. The resulting structure was both child-friendly and teacher-friendly. 20 cm Anchor bolts in Additionally, because these tents do not concrete floor have mid poles, they can be used for slab, 20 cm deep permanent housing. With construction time about 3.5 hours and dismantling about an hour, the classroom can be easily transported. 3.4 Additional elements in Design 3.4.1 Clustering providing teacher housing should not be ignored, because it may enhance Clustering small buildings around the sense of ownership and social gathering areas can effectively create control. Additionally, it can ensure variety and levels of intimacy in that the teaching staff are available learning spaces, where rooms can on school premises at all times, which move from public to semi-private is especially important during the spaces or from group to individual rainy season when many roads are spaces. inaccessible in some areas. 3 .4.2 Dwellings 3 .4.3 Landscaping In certain settings, teachers’ houses Of the many costs of building a child- of adequate quality, function and size friendly school, landscaping is likely may be offered, depending on policy to be among the lowest, yet it has one and resources. The importance of of the greatest influences on school 13 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    Standards used inthe SWASTHH1 guidance, and the community was project, Jharkhand (India) involved with plant stock selection, planting and maintenance. Generally, ELEMENT STANDARD/NORM the plant stock should be local and Compound wall The compound wall must known to the community. This is cover the school area and be another opportunity to enhance a strong enough to keep out sense of community ownership. intrusions or threats (e.g., from Creative landscaping has a relatively cattle). low cost but a high impact on the Toilet Two toilets separated by appearance of the final child-friendly gender and two urinals per school. 250 children. Safe drinking Three litres per child per day. 3 .4.4 Hygiene, sanitation, water water Facilities for Specific area with water and It seems obvious that facilities for hand washing soap. Recycling water should children require different dimensions be part of the overall design. than those for adults. Nevertheless, Play area A clear, level area for sports ‘adult-size’ designs are too often that can accommodate at least used for schools, and even where one class per session. Sports these are adapted, the changes are equipment is recommended. usually minimal. Important details are overlooked, and the fact that children Gardens A designated area for plants, fruits and vegetables. The have different physical abilities than harvest will be used for the adults tends to be ignored. In the midday meal. Children should design of child-friendly schools, participate in the maintenance child-sized adaptations of toilet seats, and recording of vegetable urinals, taps, doorknobs, locks and yield to promote a sense of handrails are crucial. Equally important ownership. is adapting to physical abilities by Garbage A designated area for garbage considering the weight of doors and disposal disposal and a compost toilet covers, the strength needed to system; dustbins and brooms open taps and fetch water. In schools are needed. Children must with a large age spread in the student participate in cleaning and body, separate facilities for younger maintaining the classroom. children, older children and teachers are recommended. When the same 1 SWASTHH stands for School Water and Sanitation towards Health and Hygiene. facilities are used by different age groups, special provisions can be made to allow smaller children to aesthetics. While most agree that make use of the facilities, such as a ‘good’ landscaping is of high value, the step in front of the toilet seat or an actual design, plant selection, garden additional seat cover with a smaller preparation and maintenance are not hole. simple or straightforward. In India, for instance, the rebuilding period after Additionally, special adaptations the Gujarat emergency in 2001 was for disabled schoolchildren must the first time that local agricultural be incorporated into the design and institutions were consulted for design the location of water and sanitation 14 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    facilities. Too often,the needs of women are not to be seen when children with disabilities are ignored entering a toilet. At the same time, or simply forgotten. young women are afraid of being harassed or assaulted in secluded When dealing with hygiene, sanitation areas. This requires balancing different and water, it is also important that considerations, setting priorities and the facilities be accessible, which participatory decision-making. Design will encourage hygienic behaviour can become difficult when these and reduce the spread of diseases at aspects conflict and different users school. Too often being ‘hygienic’ is have different preferences. Even a so complex, because of bad design, well-designed facility risks not being that many children fail to practise used if its location has been poorly good hygiene. Therefore, water and considered. sanitation facilities should be simple and easy to use. 3.4.5 Early childcare facilities Construction needs that will ensure ample, accessible water and sanitation A key component of the continuum capacity should be calculated not just between child-friendly schools and on the basis of the total number of local communities is linking the care students, but also on other factors, of younger children who are not yet such as the school timetable, ratio in school with these schools. When of girls to boys, projected growth early childcare is located within of the school population and other or near the school, older children developments. For instance, in early who are attending school can leave childhood centres and lower primary their younger siblings at the centre. schools (up to age 8 or 9) sharing This frees older siblings to attend of toilets by boys and girls may be school and ensures that the younger possible. children are not brought into already overcrowded first-year classrooms. Natural lighting and ventilation of In emergencies, these centres can toilets are important for cleanliness provide parents and siblings with and removal of bad odours. There an opportunity to be involved in should be enough light to inspect activities outside the crisis, reducing for cleanliness; therefore, the use their depression and despair. Because of natural light is recommended, in young children provide moments of combination with light colours for the pleasure and joy that bring back a interior. To ensure proper ventilation, sense of normalcy, they are a source at least two openings are needed. of healing for many families. Young children appreciate small Essential considerations in creating openings at eye level. An opening in early childcare facilities include: the door allows a teacher to move the latch from the outside if a child Separate facilities: Early childcare accidentally gets locked in. centres need not be official buildings, but should be dedicated, protected Finding the right location requires spaces. They need plenty of light and looking at different practical, air, and should include smaller-sized environmental and cultural aspects. In toilets, a cooking space and storage some Islamic countries, for instance, for supplies and materials. They need 15 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    to be freeof hazardous objects and such as different flooring materials, protected from the elements. wall textures or colours; or by changes in lights or ceiling or floor height. Such Caregivers based on ratio and age: separate, well-defined boundaries Supervision is critical for keeping support social interaction, encourage children safe and engaged in age- exploratory behaviour and prevent appropriate activities. The ratio of interruption of ongoing play. In children to caregiver depends on their general, the classroom should have at age, the facility and the country’s least four distinct activity zones: resources. However, there should be no more than 20 children per caregiver • Gross motor skill zone. Toddlers in the 4- to 6-year-old range, 10 per and preschool-age children need caregiver for the 2- to 3-year-old range space where they can dance, climb, and 4 per caregiver for infants. jump and move things about. The area should be large enough to Space: A childcare centre needs to be accommodate structures, such as a sufficiently large to give each child slide or tunnel, and open enough to space to move and explore. Children allow for riding and push-and-pull in these age ranges do not have to toys. be seated in chairs, but could instead have mats to sit on, materials to learn • ramatic-play zone. Make-believe D from and room to play on their own and imagination are important for or in small groups. An early learning pre-kindergarteners. Providing environment involves a combination props, such as kitchen appliances, of teacher-directed and child-directed living room furniture or a theatre activities. area, encourages such play. While the dramatic-play zone should be Research has shown that well- adjacent to the gross motor skill zone functioning early childhood to allow for easy movement between centres are not just scaled-down the two, a clear division between the elementary schools or simply spaces should be visible to promote open play spaces. Early childhood a sense of semi-private space. centres must incorporate specific design elements to achieve a safe, • rts and crafts zone. This is the ‘wet’ A enjoyable developmental and area of the room, where children can learning environment. For instance, experiment with sand, water, paint, the centres should allow from 4.5 to paste and other messy materials. 5.5 square metres of space per child, The arts and crafts zone should be with a minimum of 3.8 metres per next to a water source, such as a sink child. A larger classroom improves and gooseneck faucet, and have a programmatic flexibility, provides washable floor. Good lighting is also space so children can engage in important. concurrent quiet and active play, and • uiet zone. Young children need Q decreases aggressive behaviour. personal space that permits Classrooms need to be spatially interaction with an adult caregiver differentiated. Activity areas can be and provides an area for solitary separated by physical objects like play, looking at books or simply movable partitions, open shelves, resting. The quiet zone should have cabinets and plants; or by visual signs carpeting, comfortable chairs and 16 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    pillows, a lowbookshelf for books that can endure emergencies. Since and stuffed toys, and a space (out of UNICEF inputs are generally a small reach of toddlers) for objects such as portion of the total rehabilitation and plants or an aquarium. reconstruction effort, the agency should strive to offer practical, Safety: With young children, safety is affordable and innovative designs for a major concern. A group that includes educational facilities that governments older children (6 years old and above) and communities will want to adopt needs to be carefully managed or the on a national scale. young children will be overshadowed and left out. Teachers and caregivers Schools as emergency shelters: must be sure that children do not have Sometimes child-friendly schools sharp objects to play with, that there must go beyond education, acting as are no dangerous places nearby and shelters or gathering places during that there are no contaminants in the emergencies. This is particularly area. Food needs to be served directly common in hurricane-, earthquake- after cooking, not kept for long periods and flood-prone locations. Schools of time. are often the strongest buildings in the community, and they can be 3.4.6 Emergency situations designed to accommodate multiple functions, serving as shelters and In the past, UNICEF built schools classrooms at the same time. It is or advocated school designs in crucial to understand the importance emergency-prone areas that did not of establishing a minimum set of always withstand calamity: Schools standards for schools, especially often collapsed following earthquakes when their main educational function or floods, and those that did survive can be affected by other events and failed to provide adequate shelter. situations. UNICEF now advocates a range of The dual-function model can reduce innovative designs based on ‘disaster the amount of time children are forced risk reduction’ for child-friendly to be out of school. Many children environments, while at the same spend months, even years, out of time respecting existing customs school when their classrooms are and practices. In the Philippines, being used as shelters. Regardless for instance, schools rebuilt after of whether an emergency situation typhoons now have more durable exists, all designs should consider design and construction elements. the specific emergency profile of These schools have also been a given locale. Some locations are designed to provide temporary flood prone, others susceptible to shelter for adults in an emergency, drought, earthquakes or hurricanes; while allowing for school activities to still others have been engaged in continue at certain times of the day. long-term civil or military conflict. While radical innovation may be Many locations have multiple- rejected by local communities or risk profiles, and a design that is governments, lockstep adherence good for some conditions may be to existing designs that no longer disastrous if used in the presence work is counter to creating schools of others – for example, using 17 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    lightweight prefab materialsmade for is particularly high risk, then the earthquake conditions in a high-wind designs will need to be independently zone. During the process of defining evaluated for compliance with the the hazard profile, it is important to profile. In the case of post-emergency define these conditions in such a way reconstruction, construction designs that they can be fully and objectively should be professionally reviewed by evaluated by architects, suppliers independent, qualified institutions to and contractors. If the hazard profile confirm their safety. These evaluations Diagram 3: TYPICAL CLASSROOM Cross SECTION 1 2 + 2,600 mm 4 3 5 Gable walls 6 7 Blackboard 8 2,100 mm x 1,200 mm 9 1,450 mm 10 Concrete floor 80 mm + 30 mm sand/cement finish 11 0 mm* 12 13 Selected fill in two layers of 150 mm each; for black -250 mm cotton (expansive) soil, compressed sand bed. 14 -600 mm** 6,500 mm at centre 15 KEY: 1. Galvanized corrugated steel sheets and 10. Stabilized block bench or fired brick with ridge, gauge 28.0 hardwood top, up to 450 mm 2. 140 beam truss (slope 22 degrees) with IPE 11. Tie beam, UPE 140 Z-beam purlins 12. Ramp 3. Overhang, 900 mm 13. Anti-termite barrier 4. Truss and column are bolted with M12 bolts 14. Large stone foundation with mortar mix 1:4, 5. Wall plate, UPE 140 or stabilized soil block up to 250 mm above 6. Steel louvre windows, 2,020x2,020 mm field ( including frame), pivotal at 300 mm from 15. Drainage, cement tile, 600x600x50 mm, with top gravel, 1,200 width, 300 mm depth 7. Light well, 600x1,900 mm, provides light when louvres are closed * Finished floor 8. Steel pipe, 20 mm ** Depth depends on depth of hard core 9. Column, steel pipe 125 mm or IPE 140 anchored to foundation 18 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    are available fromnumerous teachers and orphans with HIV or engineering universities. Meeting AIDS was situated close to the school the hazard profile is an important campus. Vegetable gardens and trees benchmark with the government and were planted nearby. In the campus local communities and can assure that model, the perimeter is open. Spaces the child-friendly school will survive the are designed to be highly visible so hazards it faces. that community members can take responsibility for each other’s security. Campuses and compounds: The need The campus boundaries are additionally for complex, integrated services for secured by fencing and a guard. children in emergencies has given rise to new ways of thinking about security, The central focus on children’s return schooling and even housing. Innovative to normal routines such as schooling designs, often building upon local also encourages adults to look beyond knowledge and skills, place services for the tragedies of the moment to the children at the centre of the community protection of their children. There within protective circles. is an urgent need to integrate the government’s emergency preparedness In Malawi, for instance, the complex with child policies. For example, child- problems created by HIV and AIDS friendly safe learning spaces can morph required innovative solutions. Thus, into child-friendly schools and child- schools and recreation spaces were friendly communities. Early childcare placed in the same compound as centres and nurseries can sprout within medical services, and housing for the same school grounds as the child- Malawi: Permanent school in Mphunga Schools in Malawi are usually constructed from locally burned bricks, corrugated sheets and wooden beams supporting roofs of corrugated sheets. Such construction leads to environmental problems. The technology used for burning bricks is primitive, causing over-consumption of wood and increased deforestation. Roof beams, even if treated, are soon damaged by termites. Classrooms are too hot, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. They are suitable neither as learning spaces for children nor as working places for teachers. Education quality is deteriorating. UNICEF, in collaboration with Norwegian Authorities, chose an innovative technology based on the use of heavy-duty aluminium structure as a load- bearing construction for roofs and walls. Local grass was used for thatched roofs and walls were made of cement-reinforced mud blocks. Such a combination of traditional and modern materials resulted in well-functioning educational facilities, respecting the Malawian building tradition. Nine classrooms, nine dwellings for teachers, a health clinic, a doctors’ office and voluntary testing centre, and kitchens for school feeding were built, as well as latrines and water points. Construction of one classroom unit of 50 square metres cost about US$4,700. The project resulted in a cool, well-ventilated and properly lit child-friendly school. 19 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    friendly school. Safelearning spaces Emergency and education can reduce the costs of providing professionals have learned that the next generation with access to the most important resource for needed knowledge and skills. the protection of children and of a nation’s human infrastructure is the The child-friendly strategy has commitment that adults bring to been developing through local and the process. Parents in relocation international partnerships during camps are often the first to start emergencies over the past decade. their own schools and learning Built on a human-rights approach spaces to help restore a sense of that affirms the value of individual normalcy, before government or children’s lives, the child-friendly international aid arrives. Aid agencies approach expands existing support and governments can often work networks and resources for children more rapidly and effectively if – families, neighbours, governments they build on local knowledge and and donors. It places a high value on relationships instead of importing the quality of the relationships within more generic programmes packaged these social networks. internationally. Zambia: EduSport school The Kicking AIDS Out (KAO) centre in a rural district north of Lusaka was initiated by the EduSport Foundation, a Zambian non-governmental organization, in June 2005. The EduSport Foundation promotes education through sport, especially football, as a tool through which physical activities, information and education can contribute to HIV and AIDS prevention, particularly among children and young people in rural areas. The first stage of the KAO centre consists of four classrooms and a teacher’s house, totalling 220 square metres. The centre will provide education, dormitories for orphans without relatives, management, health services with a voluntary testing centre, water and sanitation, and food and medicine storage. The innovative approach focuses on food production and skills training meant to provide not only nutrition for students, but also a source of income to cover operational costs. Sports grounds are an important part of the project. The EduSport Foundation plans to establish 10 similar centres throughout Zambia. The local community was involved in the project and responsible for implementing its first stage. The construction took about four weeks. Local materials, such as grass for thatching and mud blocks for walls, were used. The load-bearing structures for walls and roofs are aluminium; the floors are concrete slab. The construction cost of a classroom (50 square metres) was US$4,700. The centre, to be developed in stages and in accordance with funding, is a child-friendly school model, offering safe care to orphans. The community will be responsible for the centre’s operation with support from the EduSport Foundation. 20 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    Diagram 4: KICKINGAIDS OUT ­ — EDUSPORT CENTRE IN ZAMBIA Sports ground Access road (volleyball, basketball) Fruit farm Gardening Sports ground (games) 7 6 1 2 4 5 8 9 3 School courtyard (games) 8 8 8 8 3 3 3 3 15 Access road Sports ground 12 11 14 14 10 (football, athletics) 13 13 16 14 14 Technical core 17 (water, electrical power) 18 19 Animal husbandry KEY: 1. Management 11. Sanitation (staff) 2. Security guard technical service 12. Medicine storage 3. Classrooms 13. Food storage 4. Skills training 14. Sanitation (students) 5. Teacher’s house 15. Kitchen 6. Voluntary testing and counselling 16. Chicken run 7. Ward 17. Rabbits 8. Accommodations (students) 18. Goats 9. Guest house 19. Pigs 10. Staff house 21 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    India: After theearthquake A massive earthquake struck the Indian state of Gujarat on 26 January 2001. The earthquake registered 7.9 on the Richter scale, according to the United States Geological Survey, killing at least 17,000 people and leaving more than 700,000 homeless. Early estimates valued the total damage at approximately US$1.2 billion. More than 12,000 schools, 800 anganwadis (early childcare centres) and many health institutions were severely damaged. In addition to physical and material damage, the earthquake’s devastation directly affected nearly 3 million children and 2.5 million women. As many as 1,000 students were killed in the city of Bhuj alone. An estimated 200,000 children enrolled in the schools in Kutch district were affected, and nearly 800 schools were damaged. According to the Indian Office for Disasters, the situation called for community-based care for the entire region, especially for the vulnerable. The Gujarat earthquake occurred in a region where the frequency and intensity of earthquakes were well documented (Zone V on the national and international measurement scales), as were risks for cyclonic winds up to 150 kph, drought and flash flooding. It was important to know these risks before undertaking the reconstruction process, because such risks dramatically affect design requirements and the cost and complexity of construction. For example, many sites in the Gujarat reconstruction required high plinth construction due to flash flooding. Also, it should not be assumed that the particular emergency condition being addressed presents the most difficult design or engineering challenge: In Gujarat, the additional strength needed to comply with Zone V earthquake resistance was not as difficult or as costly as compliance with the wind-load factors required for cyclonic winds up to 150kph. UNICEF supported the construction of the schools, using the occasion as an opportunity to demonstrate the concept of child-friendly spaces. The first buildings were designed to be cyclone and earthquake resistant, highlighting the importance of safe, secure learning environments. Equity issues were also important. Some of the new features introduced included ramps for the physically challenged, separate toilets for boys and girls, drinking-water facilities, fencing, and school furniture for students and teachers. Children were engaged in planting trees and growing school gardens wherever possible. Schools were also used to demonstrate water conservation. All told, 169 schools, consisting of 610 classrooms, were built using child- friendly learning space designs. The new infrastructure showed a positive impact on both enrolment and attendance. The review team identified these schools as useful models to demonstrate child-friendly spaces with separate toilets for boys and girls, school gardens, play areas and potable water. 22 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    3.5 Factors influencing design 3.5.1 Gender Obstructions should also be eliminated from the school grounds. The sports Just as it is in other parts of society, and extra-curricular areas, shaded gender discrimination is pervasive outdoor lunch and learning spaces in schools and learning spaces. In and school gardens should be made many cases, discrimination is related handicapped-accessible. Circulation to cultural beliefs and traditions. paths and routes must be accessible Sometimes it is caused by failure to everyone, and their surfaces should to recognize problems and needs. be maintained regularly, especially Although it has been stated that during the rainy season. The design adolescent girls drop out of school needs to follow established norms for because they lack separate facilities, accessibility while being sensitive to so far, none of these claims have been overall aesthetics, all of which usually supported by studies or quantitative adds a small amount to the final cost. evidence. What has been shown is that Design considerations are not enough, inappropriate provisions for school however: Teachers and other school hygiene, sanitation and water do affect personnel must be reminded of their adolescent schoolgirls’ absenteeism responsibilities to disabled children. (a first step towards dropping out of school) and their sustained interest in 3.5.3 Climate schooling. Analysis of the microclimatic aspects 3.5.2 Access for the disabled of a site will influence the design (form, shape, mass, colours, order), the For the approximately one in five of orientation of buildings and the choice the world’s poorest people who are of building technologies, construction disabled, access to basic services is a details and materials for the school, daily struggle. The concept of access and the layout and organization of the for the disabled is often unknown in learning spaces. rural or poor urban school/learning space settings. Wheelchair access A study in Bam (Iran), for instance, ramps in a child-friendly school may found that its harsh bioclimatic be the first acknowledgement of the conditions – a dry-hot zone with existence of disabled children in the regular strong, dust-laden winds community and of their right to attend and temperatures reaching up to 50 school. With only small adjustments degrees Celsius – called for specific (for example, a ramp) schools can be design guidelines for child-friendly made accessible for these children. environments that included orienting There also should be wider doors buildings along the east-west axis, (1,000 millimetres) and adequate heavy external and internal walls, corridor space in which to manoeuvre use of water and plants to produce a wheelchair; plinths or doorsteps humidity, utilization of north winds for obstructing entrance to classrooms air circulation and cooling in summer, and offices should be avoided. and use of verandas, porches, trellises, 23 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    and trees toproduce comfortable, the financial outlays of donor and shaded places for children. government. But reducing costs does not necessarily translate into good results. In Sierra Leone, for instance, 3.5.4 Cost of infrastructure the costs of a child-friendly pavilion loft classroom were extensively Putting non-governmental reduced due to the large community- organizations or village education input component. The cost went from committees in charge of school around US$10,000 or US$12,000 for a construction promotes community conventional classroom of 54 square participation and also reduces cost. metres to an average of US$5,000 Reliance on ‘community contribution for the child-friendly classroom of of labour for construction’ shifts the an average 100 square metres of social cost to communities and reduces learning space including play/learning Diagram 5: Plan 1: Existing classroom Basic Improvements Stairs • asy exit provided by the second E door • etter cross ventilation by adding B windows and wall openings • Deck for outdoor activities • Garden • Separate toilets for boys and girls • Multi-activity classroom • Veranda for shaded area Plan 2: Improved classroom Veranda Bio-fence Ramp Garden Outlook deck Toilets 24 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    Gender-sensitive school design Several factors need to be taken into consideration in designing schools that address girls’ needs. During menstruation, most low-income women in developing countries use cloth or rags to absorb blood, materials that can cause bad odours and are subject to leaking. In some cultures and among the very poor, women might use no means at all to absorb menstrual blood. Spending long hours at school without being able to wash properly can be an inconvenience to menstruating women and cause them embarrassment. Both schoolgirls and female teachers will opt to stay away from school on those days, resulting in absenteeism for 10 per cent to 20 per cent of school time. Consequently, girls fall behind in learning, which may very well be the first step towards dropping out. Children begin to become aware of their development and physical changes at prepubescence (age 10 to 12). This awareness creates a need for gender- related privacy, which becomes particularly acute when toilet use and menstruation are concerned. If no privacy is provided, children will choose to look for an informal private place or wait until after school hours. In situations when they need to go to the toilet frequently, such as during episodes of diarrhoea, they prefer not to attend school rather than use facilities where others who see their ‘embarrassing’ condition may tease them. decks and loft (micro-library). But the tasks, such as repainting, can be done buildings were never finished – a stark by adults with help from the children. reminder that shifting social cost does Allocation of funds for the ongoing not necessarily reduce or eliminate upkeep of the school should be the cost. It further underscores the decided by the democratically elected importance of overall management. school board. No matter how well a school is designed and built, it will not function Construction budget: School smoothly if it is not well managed and construction costs should normally maintained. be determined by the basic standards for the design, labour costs and the Planning must also adequately budget cost of materials for the child-friendly for the cost of maintenance. Once the school (Dierkx, 2003). But these cost child-friendly school is completed, its factors can vary greatly depending regular cleaning and maintenance can on circumstances. The abundance involve children. Sweeping, yard work of and access to local materials and and other chores can be part of the local building skills can encourage daily schedule and can involve even strong community involvement if the young children. When the school has culture of community participation is active relationships with parents and well rooted. On the other hand, the other community members, many reality of poor infrastructure (roads, of the larger maintenance and repair communication), lack of security, 25 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    absence of localbuilding skills and prices have stabilized. It may also be materials, and a limited history of useful to explore partnerships with community participation may result in non-governmental organizations and a monopoly for certain construction not-for-profit organizations that provide firms, especially when there is a construction services. demand for construction work by the government and the international Maintenance budget: Governments development community. As a result, have neglected budgeting for such locally ‘overheated’ construction maintenance costs in the past, resulting markets spawn inflated prices for in the need to replace classrooms school construction. If this inflation faster than their expected design life. exists, it may be wise to wait until the Relying just on the community can be construction market has relaxed and problematic, since the cost of effective CASE STUDY 1 LOCATION The location of schools or any new extensions within the school compound must be a conscious design exercise that takes into account different aspects of the basic planning process. The movement of the sun, direction of the wind, soil capacity, proximity to the seashore or riverbank, existence of a water source and questions of accessibility are just some of the important factors to be considered in designing and building a school. The photograph shows a relatively new toilet facility at Ban Thalaenok School in the south of Thailand. The facility was designed in Bangkok without a proper site survey. There was no site visit to determine existing conditions and identify the best location for the new toilets in relation to the rest of the school. As a result, the toilets were built next to a steep staircase that leads to the canteen. They are completely inaccessible because of the grade difference. The person in the photograph is a 41-year-old teacher trying to climb to urinals meant for 5- to 11-year-old primary students. The toilets, never used, stand as a testament to a missed opportunity to improve children’s lives. © UNICEF/2007/Vasquez 26 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    maintenance is oftenout of reach for maintaining the school grounds and many communities. When deciding buildings before things break down on construction standards, materials’ or the grounds become inaccessible durability should be the key factor. or polluted (flooding, soil-erosion, Government budgets for classroom solid and fluid waste) prevents construction should include financing damage and the extra cost of dealing for maintenance throughout the life with preventable problems. This of the school building. However, a type of preventive maintenance is ‘culture of maintenance’ is not yet just as important as the periodic or fully rooted in many nations and scheduled maintenance over the life needs to be strengthened at all school of a building. levels. For example, cleaning and CASE STUDY 2 CONSTRUCTION In a natural disaster, victims usually deal with both the forces of nature and the damage left in their wake. Homes, hospitals and schools can be destroyed by earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones. Therefore, school reconstruction must be guided by prevention rather than response. Reducing risk in emergencies can save hundreds, even thousands, of children. © UNICEF/2008/Vasquez Schools that are structurally sound can also serve as shelters for the entire community. Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in May 2008, had devastating consequences. More than 140,000 people were killed or missing. Women, especially, were the cyclone’s victims, ravaging the stability of the social network. Many of the devastated schools showed signs of poor maintenance or of negligent supervision during their construction. Yet, in many schools, rafters, trusses and concrete foundations were found intact. These ‘parts’ had been built to specifications, but the interconnection of the parts was weak: Rafters were not properly connected to the brick walls with metal straps, or wood connections were © UNICEF/2008/Vasquez done improperly. Wood posts that were not treated for humidity and water damage were rotten, further weakening the connection of the superstructure and foundation. These pictures show intact rafters blown away and badly maintained wood posts still attached to the foundation. 27 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    CASE STUDY 3 DESIGN Designing a school goes beyond planning a building with four walls, windows and a door. A school must be adapted to the specific conditions of the local community and the geographical characteristics of the site; it must be concerned with the local economy and projections of demographic growth. Primary schools in Myanmar, which have five grades, use a multigrade system within the classroom. A school may have one big classroom for all five grades and only three teachers, all conducting classes simultaneously. When building new classrooms, the challenge in Myanmar was to provide separate spaces for the students while minimizing the walking distance for teachers between classrooms. Five separate classrooms were not feasible, and one classroom was inadequate. The new classroom design provides two separate spaces with a ‘nucleus’ to accommodate two teachers. (See diagram below.) For now, one teacher can supervise two grades with separate entrances and a reading corner, allowing for reduced noise levels. A primary school could have three of these structures with three teachers. If the Government increases faculty hiring, the schools would be ready to receive two more teachers and achieve the optimum ratio of one teacher per grade. Veranda Classroom 264 square feet Stairs Books Nucleus Books Stairs Classroom 264 square feet Veranda 28 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    3.6 Design with involvementof all 3.6.1 Users government counterpart, ministry of education, representatives of the Active involvement of users is essential construction trades and community in all phases of the design process. In leaders. Community expectations are most countries, standardized designs likely to be the least articulated in the for schools reduce costs and control planning and discussions that lead to quality. Using them can be a good a final design. This can result in critical solution, but applying a standard design errors. too rigidly can actually drive up costs. In general, when properly coached Consulting by convenience may and guided, potential users are able to overlook design needs. Child-friendly assess their existing practices and find school/spaces may be built where solutions for their own needs. Their there are no pre-existing schools involvement during the design stage or where previous schools have will lead to better solutions and increase had restricted enrolments that have acceptance of these solutions. denied entry to minority subgroups. It is therefore essential for the project team to know the full complement 3.6.2 Gender needs of communities being served and, to the extent possible, address their Besides having different physical expectations of their new school. This needs than boys and men, women is a time-consuming step that is easily and girls may have different roles in overlooked in the rush to show progress society and thus different points of to donors and governments. It is a step, view and knowledge. When women however, that can make the difference and girls are not adequately involved in between community ownership with school planning, design, construction, excellent outcomes and complete operation and maintenance, their rejection of a costly investment. opinions and needs may not be identified and included. Girls and boys, The CFS ideal is to see that all children female and male teachers, and mothers are equitably offered high-quality and fathers must be equally represented education. This cannot be accomplished during decision-making activities. The simply by completing smart-looking school environment is a model of the new schools. The slow process of community as a whole and is therefore meeting and understanding community the place where children learn about issues is a wise investment, one that gender roles and cooperation between reaps other benefits. As a school site is women and men. approaching completion, for instance, the risks of theft and vandalism dramatically increase. Providing 24- 3.6.3 Partners hour security to multiple remote sites is generally impossible, but if the local The child-friendly school project team community has been consulted and is must meet multiple expectations, in agreement with the project, it may including those of the donor, partner, provide site protection gratis. 29 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    Schools with atwist: on site, it takes seven to eight weeks Taking community schools to construct one school at a cost of to children in rural Sierra just over US$5,000. Each entity in the partnership makes a contribution: Leone Communities provide manual labour and local materials (sand, stones In Sierra Leone, an estimated 375,000 and bush sticks); parents ensure that school-age children, mostly girls, live children enrol and attend school; in poor, remote communities with no the education ministry recruits and access to educational facilities. The pays teachers; and GMC coalition country’s brutal civil war destroyed members pay for skilled labour much of the education infrastructure. and mobilize communities. UNICEF Moreover, the end of the war sparked provides the overall coordination, such a surge in school enrolment, contributes construction materials, especially among over age children, trains teachers and supplies that there is no room for younger educational materials. ones. The community school initiative is To address the needs of younger an innovative, low-cost, sustainable children who cannot walk long approach to education that makes distances, a strategy was developed use of a broad partnership and high- to take schools to children in their level community involvement. “This own communities over a four-year is a new thing that has come to our period. A partnership – composed of community,” said Chief Sullay Turay, UNICEF; the Ministry of Education, the head of Rorinka community, Science and Technology; the Global Bombali District. “Our little children Movement for Children coalition in can now attend school without Sierra Leone (GMC-Sierra Leone); waiting until they are 10 years old to and the communities themselves be able to walk to the nearest school. – agreed to support low-cost, child- Indeed, this is development.” friendly school facilities that would quickly get rural children into school. This initiative has proved that partnerships do work and that even The first phase established 410 poor communities can be effectively community schools designed for engaged in developing education grades 1 to 3. These children would opportunities for their children. In then be mainstreamed into larger post-conflict countries like Sierra primary schools as they grew older Leone, taking affordable and and could walk longer distances. sustainable schools to children is one step in helping the country meet UNICEF supported the design of its commitment to the Millennium an elegant facility – a simple one- Development Goal of having all classroom, integrated, multipurpose children complete a full course of pavilion that incorporates various primary education by 2015. activities from formal learning for children and adults to community Source: UNICEF Country Office theatre. It features two activity decks Sierra Leone 2005 Annual Report. and a loft that serves as an office and micro library. Once all materials are 30 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    3.7 Remaining challenges 3.7.1 Low cost programming, such as after a tsunami or earthquake, a three-track New materials and technologies modality could be followed, each with combined with appropriate traditional a specific timeline: technologies often are the best architectural and technical solutions 1. Rapid multidisciplinary response for school construction given the team – short cycle, from three local climate, culture and socio- weeks to three months, with economic circumstances. Technology various experts from education, choices made by governmental health, child protection, water policymakers and decision makers and sanitation, environmental are often based on their perception planning and community of ‘what development is and what planning, as well as an economist, it is not’. However, they often lack architect, engineer or logistics knowledge of the immediate and expert; longer-term implications of a specific 2. Midterm multidisciplinary ‘technology package’ choice. For response team – longer example, a high-tech solution implies term, from 3 to 24 months, building materials and methods that with experts drawn from UN are usually not found nearby and agencies to enhance inter-agency are often costly. It also implies that cooperation; foreign expertise and contractors must be hired, which adds to 3. Long-term implementation – after the costs. It usually means that 24 months, elements of child- maintenance or ‘spare parts’ are not friendly schools that are to be known or not easily available, and sustained in post-emergency that further drives up costs. Often a programming can be integrated blend of technologies, selected by into programmes. the child-friendly school team and the ministerial school planning unit, The multidisciplinary teams ensure offers the most effective solution. that planning, development and This blend will vary according to the implementation of child-friendly country and the specific case, and will school interventions are holistic be one of the most influential factors and harmonize educational, social, in the final cost. cultural, economical, technological, safety, health and environmental aspects. 3.7.2 Multidisciplinary teams The child-friendly schools programme 3.7.3 Provision of land for must explore the formation of schools multidisciplinary, self-reliant teams that could be deployed on short In areas where there has never been notice and cover the whole breadth of a school, it will be difficult to obtain the sector-wide education approach a centrally located plot of land that (SWAP). In emergency education allows for the common location 31 Child-Friendly Schools Manual
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    of a school,early childcare centres, 3.7.4 Schools in general sport areas and a close community community improvement connection. In some cases, local projects governments will allocate the least desirable land for school construction. When development banks or other In these cases, it is imperative to obtain major financers undertake projects an environmental study of the land to to improve communities, schools are determine the presence of hazardous often left out because they fall under materials. the responsibility of the education ministry and other ministries are not authorized to undertake projects within the school compound. Removing these boundaries would allow schools to be part of major improvement projects that generally fall into other areas, such as water and sanitation, road improvement and electrical supply. 3.7.5 Coordination Donor agencies and organizations should reach a common agreement on cost recovery and community participation for school construction. Questions arise, such as: Are communities required to provide unskilled labour and transportation of supplies, or will all work be subcontracted? Must the community provide the land for school construction, or must the organization buy it? Does the community arrange and pay for school toilets and water supply? These questions are relevant in all programme settings but especially in emergency situations. © UNICEF/NYHQ2007-1374/Pirozzi 32 Chapter 3: Location, Design and Construction
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    Table of Contents Chapter3 Location, design and construction 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 General approach and key considerations 3.1.2 Basic elements for a good school 3.1.3 Additional elements for a child-friendly school 3.2 Pedagogy and design 3.2.1 Classrooms 3.2.2 Facilities 3.2.3 Outdoor spaces 3.3 Locating schools or learning spaces 3.3.1 School size and location 3.3.2 Mobility 3.3.3 Assessment of topographical risk 3.4 Additional elements in design 3.4.1 Clustering 3.4.2 Dwellings 3.4.3 Landscaping 3.4.4 Hygiene, sanitation, water 3.4.5 Early childcare facilities 3.4.6 Emergency situations 3.5 Factors influencing design 3.5.1 Gender 3.5.2 Access for the disabled 3.5.3 Climate 3.5.4 Cost of infrastructure 3.6 Design with involvement of all 3.6.1 Users 3.6.2 Gender needs 3.6.3 Partners 3.7 Remaining challenges 3.7.1 Low cost 3.7.2 Multidisciplinary teams 3.7.3 Provision of land for schools 3.7.4 Schools in general community improvement projects 3.7.5 Coordination
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    For more information,please contact: Education Section Programme Division, UNICEF Published by UNICEF Division of Communication 3 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017, USA Website: www.unicef.org Email: [email protected] © United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) March 2009