Schools 'risk second winter of open windows and freezing temperatures'

Schools have been urged to apply for funding to improve ventilation as soon as possible to ensure they don’t endure a second winter of open windows and freezing temperatures. File picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Schools have been urged to apply for funding to improve ventilation as soon as possible to ensure they don’t endure a second winter of open windows and freezing temperatures.

Simon Jones, a member of the expert group on ventilation which formerly advised the National Public Health Emergency Team, said “time is running out” for schools to collate the information they need to secure funding from the State to make their buildings compliant with the Covid-era world.

“The focus is on comfort within schools and also Hepa filters, but we’re missing the opportunity to set schools up for the longer term,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“Before we know it, we’ll be out of the cold months and up to summer. If you want to fix what’s wrong you need to be organising funding in March and April. Monitoring studies run out of time. We’ve got a unique opportunity for schools due to the prevalence of monitors, but we’re already halfway through the winter season,” Mr Jones said.

He explained that at present schools should be collating the data they have available, with a view to applying to the Department of Education and securing funding by April.

The Government recently committed to providing up to €72m in additional funding that can be used by schools and childcare services to improve ventilation as part of efforts to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

“If you want to do this work, you want to do it during the summer,” Mr Jones said. “That means going out to tender in June and July, with a view to building in August.”

If you’re applying for funding, though, you need to have your application right, because otherwise what will you be writing reports on the basis of?”

He said that without the appropriate data, applications will simply be refused.

“You can’t measure air quality yourself. So typically control of air in a classroom was based on flawed concepts. Now we have a proliferation of monitors in classrooms we can take in loads of data, and it’s very simple to record what’s happening at different points of the day,” he said.

Mr Jones suggested that schools should record information in terms of temperature, CO2 levels, how open windows are, and whether the heating is on at specific times of the day for several days.

“You don’t need that much data, you just need to show it on a consistent basis, it’s quite logical,” he said. 

He explained that a professional, likely an architect, could then support the data which could be sent to the department.

“The State has to ensure schools are safe. If you’re showing clearly there is a fundamental issue, then it must be addressed.”

“This is going to be costly, it will take years, and it will cost millions and millions. But the money will simply have to be found,” he added.