Formal education is essential to social and economic development, and school facilities are essential to formal education. USAID’s support to the education sector often includes funding for the construction, expansion and/or rehabilitation of schools.
Environmentally sound design and management (ESDM) of schools is essential to creating a school environment that facilitates learning, safeguards the health and safety of students, reinforces the basic hygiene behaviors that are important to public health; and to assuring that school facilities will be durable, returning social benefits over many years on the substantial investment they represent.
ESDM requires:
- Siting, design and materials choices that are responsive to local environmental conditions;
- Appropriate environmental management of the construction process;
- Minimizing environmental contamination (and thus consequent health impacts) with well-designed and maintained waste management and sanitation facilities;
- Provision of safe, adequate water supplies.
Failure to address these issues in school design and management results in environmental and health risks that may diminish or negate many of the benefits schools are intended to deliver. School facilities can:
- Become breeding grounds and transmission points for disease, increasing the health risks for students and the general community.
- Provide physical environments unfavorable for learning—or worse, that are physically unsafe.
- Have, in their construction and operation, adverse impacts on the local environment, compromising the resources that the community needs for current subsistence and future development.
- Deteriorate rapidly, becoming unusable or requiring rehabilitation and placing additional demands on already scarce education resources.
This chapter describes how these potential effects and outcomes arise and recommends mitigation and monitoring measures to prevent or reduce them, both in design and operation. As in other sectors, effective mitigation is much easier when potential adverse outcomes are identified and addressed early in the design and construction process.
Resources
Other Small-scale Guideline Chapters
- A number of the issues summarized in this guidance are treated in more detail in other chapters of the Sector Environmental Guidelines. Refer to these chapters for more detailed information on specific issues:
- Construction
- Safer Pesticide Use
- Solid Waste
- Water Supply and Sanitation
All chapters include extensive annotated bibliographies and are available for download.
Latrine Siting & Technology Selection
- Greaves, Frank. Selecting Appropriate Latrines. TILZ (Tearfund International Learning Zone) Footsteps Series no. 73. http://tilz.tearfund.org/Publications/Footsteps+71-80/Footsteps+73/Selecting+appropriate+latrines.htm
A short brief on latrine technology selection, including a decision flow chart and criteria ranking approach.
- Boot, Niall. Types of toilet and their suitability. (Practical Action Technical Brief). August 2008. http://practicalaction.org/practicalanswers/product_info.php?products_id=356&osCsid=qisndgrhg0d8pf0ofnq9vshqp6.
UNICEF Technical Design Information for Latrine Construction
- Excreta Disposal in Emergencies: Technical Design Information. UNICEF. http://www.unicef.org/eapro/unprotected-EDEchapter7-1.pdf
- Bonner, R., et al. TI-UP Resource Centre. DFID. Delivering Cost Effective and Sustainable School Infrastructure: Guidance Note. http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Documents/publications1/del-cost-eff-sust-sch-infra.pdf
- USAID. 2013. Addressing Climate Change Impacts on Infrastructure. https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/GetDoc.axd?ctID=ODVhZjk4NWQtM2YyMi00YjRmLTkxNjktZTcxMjM2NDBmY2Uy&rID=MzM2Njkx&pID=NTYw&
attchmnt=VHJ1ZQ==&uSesDM=False&rIdx=NDM2MzY4&rCFU=
- Wright, C., et al. (2009). UNICEF’s Child Friendly Schools Model. http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Child_Friendly_Schools_Manual_EN_040809.pdf
Rainwater Harvesting
- International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance. http://www.irha-h2o.org/
- Smet, Jo. WELL Fact Sheet: Domestic Rainwater Harvesting, 2003 http://www.lboro.ac.uk/well/resources/fact-sheets/fact-sheets-htm/drh.htm
This fact sheet gives an overview of rainwater harvesting systems, component technology, planning and management and the potential effects and impacts. While the factsheet specifically addresses rainwater collection for domestic use, the information can be easily adapted to school contexts.
- Assessment of Best Practices and Experience in Water Harvesting. Rainwater Harvesting Handbook. African Development Bank. http://www.pseau.org/outils/ouvrages/bafd_rainwater_harvesting_handbook.pdf
School Construction and Maintenance
- Architecture & Behaviour Colloquium, Architectural Quality in School Buildings: School Building Design and its Relevance to Students’ Learning Performance - with a Specific Focus on the Planning and Design of Schools in Developing Countries, 12th Architecture & Behaviour Colloquium, March 30-April 1, 2007, Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland - http://sdpl.coe.uga.edu/HTML/SchoolBuildingDesign&LP.pdf
The 12th Architecture & Behaviour Colloquium brought together researchers and representatives of instances implicated in decision making about and building of new schools to discuss the interrelationship between school buildings and the level of students’ scholarly performances in developing country settings. Proceedings of the Colloquium will be published in the Architecture & Behaviour series.
- Bonner, Roger R.M. & Das P.K., Vidyalayam, Cost Effective Technologies for Primary School Construction, Overseas Development Administration, New Delhi, 1996 (Department for International Development, British Development Cooperation Office, 50M Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi - 110 021, India)
A very useful and practical guide on school building with some emphasis on innovative technology and practice to reduce costs, especially of roofs. This includes use of arches, corbelling and precast elements. Although some of the technologies presented have been little used outside India, others have more widespread application.
- Designshare, The International Forum for Innovative Schools - http://www.designshare.com/
The focus of this website is largely on schools in Western countries, North America in particular. It includes details on articles and a newsletter. The design awards are the most important component, where featured school buildings are described and plans, drawings and photographs presented.
- Dierkx, René, Toward Community-Based Architectural Programming and Development of Inclusive Learning Environments in Nairobi's Slums, Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 13, No.1 (Spring 2003) - http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/13_1/Vol13_1Articles/CYE_CurrentIssue_Article_CommunityBasedArch_Dierkx.htm
An interesting article describing a project to redesign schools in Nairobi slums which involved incorporation of children's ideas in the design.
- IEA International Energy. Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme. Renewable Energy Services for Developing Countries: In Support of the Millennium Development Goals: Recommended Practice & Key Lessons. Report IEA-PVPS T9 – 09:2008. http://files.repic.ch/files/IEA-PVPS_ServicesforDevelopingCountries.pdf.
- ITGD (now renamed Practical Action) Technical Brief, School Buildings in Developing Countries, 2005 - http://www.itdg.org/docs/technical_information_service/school_buildings_in_developing_countires.pdf
Discussion of design, construction, and maintenance requirements for schools in developing countries.
- School / Shelter Hazard Vulnerability Reduction Resource Page, Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project implemented by the Organization of American States Unit of Sustainable Development and Environment for the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Caribbean Regional Program, 2001 - http://www.oas.org/cdmp/schools/schlrcsc.htm
Summarizes a long-term project to develop national plans to reduce vulnerability of school buildings to natural hazards in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project included a survey of existing school buildings to create vulnerability profiles and the development of school maintenance plans. In the Caribbean pilot project, a master manual of standards for the retrofitting or construction of schools/shelters and for estimating the costs was developed, as were individual reports describing results of property surveys in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Kitts.
- Sekkei Keikaku and World Education-Benin, “Manuel de maintenance et d’entretien des infrastructures scolaires (Manual for School Maintenance and Upkeep)”, created for the “Projet de Construction d’Ecoles Primaires en République du Benin”, 2004.
This manual, written in French, describes construction and maintenance techniques for primary schools in Benin.
- The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). Sustainable Energy for Developing Countries. 2008. http://twas.ictp.it/publications/twas-reports/SustainEnergyReport.pdf.
- Whitby, Garry, Primary Community School Construction, Appropriate Technology, Vol. 25, No. 1, June 1998, pp. 30 – 32.
A short case study on a rural school building programme in Malawi focusing on planning, building technologies, site selection, design and layout, community participation, tendering, gender strategy and training, and capacity building.
School Sanitation and Hygiene Education
- Mooijman A. UNICEF. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Child Friendly Schools. A Companion to the Child Friendly Schools Manual. http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/cfs_wash_e_web.pdf
- IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, School Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SSHE) Theme - http://www.irc.nl/page/114
School Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SSHE) focuses on the responsibility to provide children with an effective and healthy learning environment. It includes lists of publications, case studies, news, and links for sanitation and hygiene education in schools.
- Snel, Mariëlle, WELL Fact Sheet: School Sanitation and Hygiene Education, 2006 - http://www.lboro.ac.uk/well/resources/fact-sheets/fact-sheets-htm/ssahe.htm
This fact sheet gives an overview on issues which arise in school sanitation and hygiene education (SSHE).
- UNICEF, In-depth case study: school sanitation and hygiene promotion in Malawi. http://www.unicef.org/malawi/wes_3975.html
- UNICEF, A Manual on School Sanitation and Hygiene, 1998 - http://www.unicef.org/wash/files/Sch_e.pdf
PART I is on School Sanitation and Hygiene Education at District and National Level. PART II School Sanitation and Hygiene Education at the School and Community Level includes a chapter on construction and maintenance of school facilities with useful discussion of early community involvement in design and the development of maintenance plans prior to construction.
Climate Change Resources
Note: USAID's Global Climate Change (GCC) Office can provide support on the climate change aspects of this Guideline. To contact the GCC office, please email: climatechange@usaid.gov
- USAID. 2007. Adapting to Climate Variability and Change: A Guidance Manual for Development Planning. http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADJ990.pdf
- USAID. 2009. Adapting to Coastal Climate Change: A Guidebook for Development Planners.
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADO614.pdf
The guidances provide information to assist planners and stakeholders as they cope with a changing climate throughout the project cycle.
- AGC of America. 2009. Climate Change and the Construction Industry. http://www.agc.org/galleries/advy/ClimateChangeandConstruction.pdf
- U.S. Green Building Council. http://www.usgbc.org/
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
https://www.leedonline.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.portal.navigation.portallauncher.anonymous
- International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA). FasTips #3. February 2013. Climate Smart Decisions. USAID Sector Guideline Schools 2013.docx http://www.iaia.org/publicdocuments/special-publications/fast-tips/Fastips_3%20Climate%20Smart%20Decisions.pdf
- National Institute of Building Sciences. Whole Building Design Guide. 2013. Passive Solar Heating. http://www.wbdg.org/resources/psheating.php
Documents Disponibles en Francais
- Manual Escuelas amigas de la Infancia (2009) UNICEF. http://www.unicef.org/spanish/publications/files/Child_Friendly_Schools_Manual_SP_05282009.pdf
Documents Disponibles en Espanol
- Manuel écoles amies des enfants. http://www.unicef.org/french/publications/files/Child_Friendly_Schools_Manual_FR_05282009.pdf