KANBrief 3/12
In the education sector, standards primarily address ergonomic aspects and have the function of optimizing health and working conditions in the "school" learning environment. Careful consideration must however be given to which aspects can be dealt with in standards and which are subject to other forms of regulation. The DGUV project entitled "The Pro-health and Pro-learning Classroom" clearly revealed the possibilities offered by standardization, and also its limitations.
In its position paper entitled "Prevention pays off", the autonomous administration of the DGUV states that standardization is an important instrument for the support of prevention activity. In the development of safe and ergonomically well designed work equipment used in many areas of life, standardization has the important function of documenting ergonomic findings and the state of the art. In accordance with their statutory prevention mandate, the accident insurance institutions pursue the goal of consideration being given to health and safety risks during the development of standards.
In contrast to office workplaces, ergonomic design requirements are often neglected in classrooms. For this reason, the DGUV conducted the "Pro-health and Pro-learning Classroom" project in conjunction with the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions for the public sector in North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony and with KAN. The project studied how the design of classrooms influences health and learning. To this end, ergonomic factors such as lighting, colour, ventilation, acoustics, floor design and furnishings were optimized in model classrooms, one in an elementary school in Dresden (Saxony), the other in a secondary school in Hennef (North Rhine-Westphalia). The conversion work was performed in line with recommendations by the DGUV expert committee responsible for the education sector.
Schools and standards
The DGUV project made reference to EN 1729- 1: "Furniture – Chairs and tables for educational institutions". This standard sets out functional dimensions and colour-coded size classes for fixed and adjustable desks and chairs. In contrast to the older ISO 5970 standard, EN 1729- 1 gives consideration to dynamic sitting, i.e. the active change between sitting positions, and also introduces an additional size class for very tall children. Ergonomic school furniture contributes to a learning environment that promotes movement and health.
In order to improve the room acoustics, DIN 18041: "Acoustic quality in small to mediumsized rooms" was applied. This standard sets out reference values for the reverberation time in classrooms. Measures for reducing the sound level in classrooms promote attentive teaching and learning. In combination, the two design aspects permit modern forms of teaching such as group and project work and active breaks. These examples show that when geared to objectivity (such as noise measurements) and products (such as tested acoustics materials), standardization in the education sector is able to contribute to an improvement of quality in schools.
Not everything can be standardized
The design factors considered in the project relate only to a part of the highly complex learning and living environment of "school". Where the safety of employees is concerned, standardization is subject to limitations: in accordance with Article 153 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, this area is governed by provisions in EU directives and their national regulatory transposition, for example by the state or the accident insurance institutions. This position is further supported by the German Consensus Statement. Accordingly, requirements for protection of the health and safety of workers at work must be regulated at national level rather than being governed by standards. In schools, such aspects include those of lighting, the posting of safety signs, and the provision of instruction to teachers.
The project has confirmed that standardization has an important role to play in the design of healthy classrooms. The constraints referred to above must however be observed. With this in mind, experts responsible for occupational safety and health in schools will continue to monitor standardization activity in the education sector together with KAN.
Andrew Orrie Bettina Palka
andrew.orrie@dguv.de palka@kan.de