8 IMPORTANT HEALTH AND SAFETY TIPS FOR SCHOOLS

 

Hazards are activities, arrangements, or events that can cause harm. It also includes the situation where a person’s behavior might cause harm to someone else. To prevent any form of hazard, schools ought to be a safe environment for the students and teachers. Below are safety tips to help your school prevent and manage hazard.

1. Prevent electric shocks by proper care of electrical appliances

The schools’ electrical devices should be monitored to avoid electrocution by any open electrical cords and leakage from the cords in order to safeguard any form of electrocution of students or teachers in the school premises. Do not overload electrical circuits, be careful of how many devices you are plugging into one outlet in order to avoid any electrical accidents.

2. Use warning signals when the floor is wet

Since tiles have become ubiquitous in this part of the world, wet floor warning alerts should be set-up when mopping to prevent students or teachers from slipping. A wet floor sign is used to warn people about the wet floor and to prevent them from slipping and falling. 

3. Fumigate the school premises periodically

Fumigation is a method of pest control that completely fills an area with gaseous pesticides or fumigants ( that is why it should be done during school vacation) to suffocate or poison the pests within the school premises. Some pests or insects are poisonous to the skin and some students react to a certain insect bite. And to prevent any form of skin health damage to the students, fumigation is needed.

4. Appoint trained health and safety officials

A health and safety representative is an employee who has been elected to represent the views of the students. This representative can be an individual person or a committee. The role of the health and safety representatives is to represent the views of employees and students in order to mediate with the board on health and safety matters which means they stand as an intermediary for the students, teachers to the school administration. The school is required to consider recommendations of any health and safety representative or committee and either adopt the recommendation or give tangible reasons why they will not adopt it.

5. Require students to provide a medical report

It is necessary for schools to request for medical reports of the students from their parents so that the teachers can be aware of the health condition of their students and also know how to handle every child. Furthermore, In case of emergency, the medical report (which contains medical history) of the child can be assessable and this can prevent the death of students in a school.

6. Reduce screen time

The present schools provide gadgets (laptops, tablets, I pads) to their children and too much screen time can result in digital eye-strain, which can include burning, itchy, or tired eyes, headaches, fatigue, blurred or double vision, loss of focus, and head and neck pain are other threats for children using screens too often and too long. Therefore, schools should monitor the time students spend on the screen. Screen time should be reduced by introducing other fun activities that don’t require a screen to students.

7. Repair  unsafe areas

Unsafe areas are places that are able or likely to cause harm. Schools should repair all unsafe areas within the facilities in the school. Check hazardous areas and make repairs an immediate priority. For example, if there are potholes on the playground or a classroom door that slams closed, ask the school teacher or cleaner to place those repairs at the top of her list. Furthermore, monthly inspections of playground equipment and facilities should be conducted by school health and safety representatives and repairs of any broken equipment or unsafe areas should be done immediately after the monthly inspection and any areas that have a habitual problem should be re-address. For example, if a piece of playground equipment continues to break, remove the entire piece of playground equipment.

8. Create a sickbay in your school

To avoid absenteeism due to minor health challenges, schools should ensure availability of sickbays within the premises. The sickbay should be well equipped and key health resources such as the first aid box should be readily available to provide support for injured pupils or students showing symptoms of an illness which has developed while at school. It is also advised that the registration of schools in a nearby hospital should be considered by the school administrator in case of emergency or situation that sickbays cannot handle.

 

In a nutshell…

Classroom safety is an essential part of a school’s hazard management.  Therefore, school administrators should ensure that their teachers are aware of classroom hazards and they are been equipped with the resources to create a safe learning environment for students and other staffs.