Latin America. School systems demonstrated superhuman creativity and determination to make distance learning possible during the pandemic. Despite the Herculean effort, 97% of educators believe students have suffered at least some disruption in learning, and more than half believe the loss was significant.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, top school administrators understood that maintaining their school's physical environment was a prerequisite for cultivating a productive educational environment. They sought to address issues such as:
- Absenteeism caused by the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- Distraction caused by surrounding noise pollution.
- Interference from children's natural learning biorhythms by things like ceiling lights.
However, now wellness issues like these will receive greater attention in a post-COVID-19 world. Looking ahead, the viability of schools depends as much on the quality of their indoor environments as on their curriculum, staff and facilities. To help students and families feel good about in-person learning, in this gradual return to school, school administrators must attend to conditions to demonstrate and communicate what they are doing to cultivate an optimal indoor environment. Here are five essential actions:
Make your school's indoor air quality (IAQ) visible
It's easy to tell when the roof is leaking or the carpet is worn. However, the air we breathe is not so evident. It's human to be afraid of what you can't see, and the invisible particles in the air are peace-stealers for parents.
"Poor indoor air quality in schools can affect the comfort and health of students and staff, which in turn can affect student concentration, attendance, and performance. In addition, if schools are slow to react quickly to poor air quality, students and staff are at greater risk of short-term health problems, such as fatigue and nausea, as well as long-term health problems such as asthma." Comments Carlos Garcia, CEO of Trane Mexico.
Under this scheme, an air conditioner plays an important role when it comes to mitigating such threats. Evaluating the performance and condition of school air conditioners is an essential first step in instilling confidence in the quality of your indoor air. A certified indoor air quality expert can methodically assess how well the air conditioning systems of any enclosure are doing.
Dilute: Making sure that a large amount of fresh air from the outside dilutes the accumulation of contaminants inside by proper ventilation.
Extracting: Absorbing air is equally important, especially air from kitchens, bathrooms, and combustion systems.
Contain: Keeping indoor humidity levels within the ASHRAE recommended range maximizes occupant comfort and reduces the risk of microbial growth.
Clean: reduce particles, odors or microorganisms, such as mold, bacteria and viruses.
Through remote monitoring, indoor air quality assessments can be conducted remotely. Often, an assessment reveals that fine tuning or simple maintenance can significantly improve air quality.
In this regard, a note or email can be sent to the children's home to parents highlighting the findings of their school's assessment and the actions taken to optimize indoor air quality. They will breathe much easier knowing that they are in a healthy building with clean air.
Obtain recognitions, endorsements or certificates
Evaluations prescribe the actions necessary to achieve the best recognized standards and practices. Equipment manufacturers, industry associations, and healthcare organizations invest in research to determine effective indoor environmental quality standards. Based on the action taken, many of these organizations offer recognitions, awards, certificates, or endorsements that you can share with your community to increase your comfort level.
Take the necessary measures to have safe classes
Adopting educational technology is often considered a source of pride for a school system. In a post-pandemic world, looking for emerging technologies to address urgent indoor air quality issues means working with a trusted advisor to guide you toward the right options for your school environments.
For example, Mexico's Ministry of Health makes recommendations on how to take an innovative approach to improving indoor air quality and ensuring a healthy indoor environment for children. At the same time, rely on experts in the field of indoor air quality and assess the conditions of buildings.
There are new technologies that take in oxygen and natural moisture that exists in the air to create a vaporized dry hydrogen peroxide that disperses within acceptable safety thresholds in a room to continuously and significantly reduce the presence of microbes in the air and on surfaces.
This technology is friendly to the occupants and managers of the building and represents a low maintenance cost, in addition to helping to effectively improve indoor air quality throughout the building, without negatively affecting energy efficiency and operating costs.
Encourage the use of air conditioning equipment in school facilities
Highlighting the on-site air conditioning system serves to let the community know that the health of the school building is important to the owners. Social media, bulletin boards, or your school events could be used to profile or recognize these unsung heroes, such as janitors and maintenance staff.
Acting by prioritizing the health of school building occupants and agreeing to one or more of these helpful tips will help ease the minds and hearts of the school community. To achieve this, it is worth relying on experts who can provide some advice, knowledge or help required for a specific need.
In addition to this, the federal government proposes nine recommendations to promote and assist safety, health and hygiene to ensure safe, responsible and orderly classes:
- Integrate and activate the Participatory School Health Committees (CPSE) in schools of the basic, upper middle and upper types, which must establish communication with their nearest health center when required.
- Set health filters: at home, at the entrance of the school and in the classroom.
- Wash hands with soap and water and / or use of antibacterial gel.
- Wear the mask correctly on the nose and mouth.
- Maintain a healthy distance.
- Give greater use to open spaces.
- Suspend any type of ceremonies or meetings that concentrate the school community.
- Immediately notify the competent authorities in case it is detected or suspected that any person presents any respiratory sign or symptom related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- Seek social-emotional support among learners and teachers and promote, among others, the SEP-HEALTH online course "Safe Return", in climss.imss.gob.mx. (2)
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