Study of circulation spaces in the schools of Dhaka In terms of safety

Abstract

School plays an important role in children's physical and mental growth. It is expected to be a place where students, teachers and ancillary staff work and learn without the fear or threat of accident. Study shows that, children lose over 10 million school days each year due to injuries alone, while an average of 22 lost school days per 100 students. Another study states that, the risk of being injured in an uncontrolled area as playground, corridor, stair and wash rooms in a school is 6.3 times greater than in a controlled area. At present many schools in Dhaka city have overcrowded and difficult-to-manage circulation routes due to poor physical conditions, improper planning, building age and inadequate maintenance. But there are still very few quantitative means used for assessing safe circulation provisions. As a result, school based accidents or incidents remain unaddressed because of unavailability of relevant data which can be linked to design measures while designing new schools. So the research is aimed to analyse and find the circulation areas of school buildings in terms of safety codes and standards in the existing context. The present thesis investigated the existing physical condition of circulation areas of the public secondary/higher secondary schools within Dhaka city. The Circulation areas of all case schools were analysed on the basis of national and international codes and standards related to school circulation areas. Information about accident occurrences within last one year were graded through questionnaire survey. Total 200 students age group range of 10 to 13 years , 25 from each school chosen at random were surveyed to identify number and type of accidents that happened within school circulation areas along with its location and time. The integrated result of physical analysis and questionnaire survey would fulfil the objective of the research work. The findings showed that, the existing horizontal circulation areas of all eight schools were up to the mark, where (8-36) % of total vertical circulation areas of all eight case schools were below the bench mark set by codes and standards analysed in the study. The occupant’s number was found (15-50) % greater than its capacity according to standard. The overall physical condition was found very poor in 87.5% cases due to old age of the structure and low maintenance which poses threads of accident. By considering all these issue and increasing awareness in this topic more effective designing measures can be taken while designing new building or any general renovation work. Keywords: School circulation, school safety, school accident.