Scientific evidence indicates that risks to students and staff can be kept low IF schools adhere to STRICT control measures and dynamically RESPOND to potential outbreaks. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, every school needs 5 components to ensure overall safety in these times.
a) Healthy classrooms: safe practices in the classroom
b) Healthy buildings: breathing clean air in the school building
c) Healthy policies: building a culture of health, safety and shared responsibility
d) Healthy schedules: moving between rooms and locations safely
e) Healthy activities: enjoying modified activities e.g physical education, sports
Here are four tips to improve air quality in your school to ensure “Healthy buildings”.
1) Increase outdoor air ventilation: You absolutely need air changes every 4 – 6 air changes per hour. This is achievable for almost every school, especially low-income ones.
2) Increase filter efficiency: Where indoor air is being re-circulated, improve filtration. Aim for MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value) filters. It captures about 80% of the particle sizes we are interested in.
3) Supplement with portable air cleaners: Use portable air cleaners with a HEPA filter. Check that the clean air delivery rate is over 300. Remember you are trying to get 4 – 6 air changes per hour.
4) Verify ventilation and filtration performance: Ensure you get professionals to check in with you periodically most especially if you are re-circulating indoor air.
The major tip to ensuring safety in these times is STRICT COMPLIANCE of all stakeholders in the school system – parents, teachers, students and other staff. Half-hearted compliance is not helpful. Therefore, a well-developed monitoring system is important because it helps you identify the negative trends that can cause problems. The foundation of compliance is adequate initial training and sensitization. You can boost safety compliance in your schools with the following tips:
- Identify the likely barrier to compliance and proffer a solution. E.g. when face masks were introduced, to solve the problem of cost and inadequate quantity, we were advised to use cloth masks too. Look around the compliance issue and proffer a workable and effective solution.
- Reinforce safety messaging. You cannot just say it once and that’s the end. You have got to keep using creative methods to remind people to comply e.g. safety posters, student and teacher monitors so that they take ownership of the process. Our Safety CheckUp game is also a great tool, get it HERE
- An easy way to boost compliance is by pairing the desired safety action you want to see with a normal everyday activity. For example, you can advise your parents to pair the action of the students picking their school bags to leave home with putting on their masks. That way the child begins to associate the process of leaving the house with school bag and mask use.
- Model good behaviour. We cannot run away from this. If you want people around you to do the right thing, start with yourself. If everyone from the school leader down to the teachers are doing the right thing, it will be easier to enforce compliance with the students and non-teaching staff.
- Have a system for rewards and penalties which must be communicated to all stakeholders. Your stakeholders are your parents, students, teaching and non-teaching staff, visitors. Remember, a weak link can mess up your safety system.
