Introduction
Health facilities and other resources constitute the main or principle of any educational program. To yield or guarantee quality output, the environment must be clean, quiet, comfort and healthy and also there should be appropriate trained and motivated teaching staffs that are adequately supplied with the necessary facilities and equipment (Erickson, 2007). The role of health facilities in schools in relationship to goal attainment cannot be over looked, because it is an important to successful teaching and learning.
According to Ademuwagun (2010), opined that the upper limit of educational facilities is reached, when facilities for effective teaching and learning can no longer be extended to more students without incurring declining return. In other words, health facility must be adequate; It is to achieve its aims. Ehiametor (2008) stated that a school that does not have adequate health facilities will find it difficult to achieve the goal and objectives of school program. The primary and secondary school in Nigeria should therefore be provided with minimum school facilities which must reflect its curriculum. Planning these facilities should also involve an estimation of student population, evaluation of existing facilities bearing in mind the needs of the school. Increased population arising from school environment, city life and material cost, will also alter health facilities. Burkett (2009). The research work is been carried out by the researcher to evaluate or survey the health facilities in school to know whether poor health facilities in school affect the academic outcome of students and pupils.
Conceptual framework
School health facilities may be defined as those items and materials which facilitate or promote the care and treatment of the students while they are in school. Defining health facilities, Ademuwagun, (2010) stated that the necessary understanding of school health facilities and principles include knowledge element which can contribute to a good physical environment of a school. Example of such term according to him, are setting ventilation and lighting, a safe water supply, adequate toilet facilities, waste disposal, insect and rodent control, the clearing of the premises, the maintenance of building and maintenance of other safety precaution in the school environment. It also means provision and maintenance of school health services and the environment.
According to Edwards (2011), school building, chairs, desk, tap water and good toilet are related health facilities necessary for a viable school learning environment. Fully equipped medical boxes should be provided in school and a teachers that are trained in the first aid procedure should be nurse, the belter and the first aid content should be made available inside the first aid box, in case of any emergency cotton wool, mentholated spirit, bandage, plaster, scissors, etc.
Many of the public schools lack most of these school health facilities which are necessary for health and learning of students. The government does not make provision for the health facilities in schools. According to Schneider (2005), in his national cleaning house for educational facilities study that in his recent study, twenty –six percent of Chicago public schools teachers and more than ninety percent of Washington D.C. teachers interviewed reported that there are no adequate health facilities in their schools, he suggested that an ideally situated school an ideally situated school should be free from all forms of congestion and also stated that the buildings should be well spaced and classrooms should be provided with chairs and desks. He also suggested that sick bays and first aid equipment should be provided for the health care of students.
The importance of school health facilities
One of the important causes of absents of student from school is due to children spending considerable time in hospital for disease and injuries that could have been effectively treated in school. Therefore, it is necessary that unlimited medical treatment should be available in school. A room should be designed as who do not have school health facilities.
Lear (2009) stated that school with higher level of co-operation between teachers, better relation with school administration and more positive behaviours towards health facilities. Also, Burkett (2009) found more positive teachers attitude in small schools that planners created in Chicago has a reduced negative behaviour toward health facilities and their participation in schools activities, satisfaction, satisfactory attendance and feeling of belong has increase a health room where all treatment should be carried out, a bed should be available for the students to rest on while waiting for transportation home or to the hospital, if that become necessary.
Cash (2013) stated that, the importance of health facilities in schools were stressed by organization for education co-operation and development in their report on educational building project. They also said, there should enough furniture and equipment for effective performance. Discussing the goodness of health facilities, Barker and Gump (2003) agreed with the view above when they intimated that each physical education should provided with appropriate facility in sufficient quality to provide each students with opportunity to actively participate throughout the entire class period.
In another dimension, Keller (2010) stated that unattractive school environment could contribute to indiscipline among students in schools. Looking at health facilities and learning environment, recreational areas, first aid box, portable water supply and good sets and adequate toilet facilities for the school with surely ensure conductive academic atmosphere.
McGuffey’s, (2009) synthesis of earlier studies correlated students achievement with better quality, good school building, better lightening, better thermal comfort and air quality and more advanced laboratories and libraries. More recent reviews by link between building quality and student’s performance. Their review was that student in non-modernized school building perform lower in basic skills assessment than students modernized or new school buildings. According to Centre for Health Care and Health Care in Schools (2007), lack of adequate health facilities can aid indiscipline in an institution of learning; such facilities include urinals, latrine, waste bins or basket at convenient sport, spaced and ventilated class-room, standard chairs and desks for both the teachers and the students. Supporting good health in relation to good performance, Laoye, (2010) states that we should realize that unless the pupils or students are in good health, the efforts of school and the teacher will be in vain. In his suggestion Moore (2007) maintained that an ideal situated school should be free from all forms of congestion that the building should be well formed from congestion and should be well spaced.
He also suggested that chairs and desk in the classroom should be well spaced to allow free flow of air while the floor of the classroom should be standardized by temperature above seventy-four degree Fahrenheit. As temperature and humidity increase, students report discomfort and their achievement and task-performance deteriorates as attention span decrease.
McGuffy (2009) was one of the first to synthesis existing working linked heat and air conditioning to learning conditions and work still is widely cited. Research also showed that even within commonly acceptable temperature spans. There are specific ranges that increase individual performance. It is not peaceable however, to provide every student is a common space with the temperature or humidity that the best suits humour her. Thermal factors may seriously degrade teachers’ abilities to teach and may also affect their morals.
Lowe (2014) found the best teachers in the country emphasized their ability to control classroom temperature as central to the performance of teachers and students. Lackney (2002) should that teachers believe thermal comfort effects both teaching quality and student achievement. Corcoran, Walker and White (2008) focused on how school facilities physical conditions affect teacher moral and effectiveness. They concluded that problems caused by working condition may result in higher absentee in reduced effort, lower effectiveness in the classroom, low morale and reduced job satisfaction.
Effect of poor school health facilities
Indoor air quality
Poor indoor air quality (IAG) is widespread and its effect is too important to ignore. The U.S General Accounting Office has found out that fifteen thousand schools suffer from poor indoor air quality, affecting more than eight million children or one in five Americans school (General Accounting Office, 1995) the indoor air quality symptoms identified irritated eyes, nose and throat upper respiratory infections, nausea, dizziness, headaches and fatigue or sleepiness have collectively been referred to as (Environmental Protection Agency (EFA), 2004)
Ironically, the high incidence of symptoms stemming from poor indoor our quality seem to have emerged as unintended consequences of the electric power blackout, oil embargoes and gas line that characterized the 1970s energy crises. In response to that national emergency, many buildings including schools were fitted with air handing systems and controls that delivered adequate. Most recommendations from occupational safety and health (OSHA) and the national institute occupation safety and home call for between fifteen and twenty cubic feet of air per minute per person. These enhanced ventilation rates not only deliver more adequate supplies of fresh air but also dilute or remove contaminants especially chemicals e.g. formaldehyde and biological e.g. mould and bacterial, contaminant that have highly demonstrable negative make effects.
Poor indoor air quality make teachers and student sick and cant’s perform well as health ones. Most notably, poor indoor air has been associated with increased student’s absenteeism.
Ventilation
Ventilation effects on performance are very obvious because in a school space without the availability of fresh air from outside to inside the building for the free circulation of air may prevent the spread of diseases within the students and teachers. Occupants of a class room without good ventilation cannot function normally and they cannot learn in their full capacity, the purpose of the ventilating classroom and school building at minimum, is to remove otherwise contaminants that can build up inside such contaminant comes from breathing, from their skin, their clothes, perfumes, from building materials and cleaning agent, pathogens and from a host of agents that were in low concentrations might be harmful. Schools need especially good ventilation because of agents that were in low concentrations might be harmful.
Schools need especially good ventilation because children breath a greater volume of air proportion to their body weight than adults (Moore, 2007) and schools have much less buildings. The symptoms of poor ventilation in a building is a build up of carbon dioxide caused by human respiration when carbon dioxide levels reach 1000 parts per million (about three times what is normally found in the atmosphere) headache, drowsiness, and inability for the students to concentrate ensure, Myhrvold, Olsen and Lauridsen (2006) found that increase carbon dioxide levels in classrooms owing to poor ventilation decrease students performance on concentration test and increased student complains of health problems.
Lighting also plays a very important role in the performance of students and without lighting, student cannot learn effectively. According to Erickson (2007), inadequate health facilities such as first aid, sewage disposal, portable water, solid waste disposal, sanitary conveniences, waste bins, and builds in school affect teaching and learning process in the school.
Temperature and humidity
Temperature and humidity affect indoor air quality (IAQ) in many ways, perhaps in most significant because their levels can mould for example, in a study of Florida classroom. Classroom with related humidity levels greater than seventy-two percent found visible mould growth on the ceiling and complaints of allergy symptoms associated with the other and of the humidity scale, done in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, which found absenteeism was reduced in schools by twenty percent relative humidity in the facilities was increased from twenty-two percent to thirty-five percent.
Harner (2006) found that the best temperature range for learning, reading and Math’s is sixty-eight to seventy-four degree and that the ability to learn these subjects is adversely affected.
Lighting
Classroom plays a particular role in student performance Philips (1997) obviously; students cannot study unless lighting is adequate. Schlitt et al. review (2008) cities result of seventy studies from the Mid 1999, the consensus of these studies is that appropriate lighting improves test scores, reduce off-desk behaviour and play a significant role in student health and achievement. Synthesis of fifty- three studies pertaining to school health facilities, student achievement and student behaviour reports that the daylights posters higher student achievement. In their study covering more than 2000 classrooms in three school districts, is perhaps the most cited evidenced about the effect of daylight. The study indicated that students who learned in environments that received the least amount of natural light.
Temperature and humidity
Temperature and humidity affect Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in many ways, perhaps most significantly because that level can mould for example, in a study of Florida classroom. Classrooms with relative humidity levels greater than seventy-two percent found visible mould growth on the ceilings and complaints of allergy symptoms associated with the sick building syndrome (EFA, 2004). At the other and of the humidity scale, done in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, which found absenteeism was reduced in schools by twenty percent relative humidity in the facilities was increased from twenty-two percent to thirty-five percent.
Frazier (2008) showed that student performance at mental tasks is affect by changes in temperature and found that office workers are most comfortable in the low end of temperature and humidity comfort zones. These findings supports the idea that students will perform mental task best in rooms kept at moderated temperatures in the range of sixty-eight to seventy-four degree Fahrenheit.
Harner (2006) found that the best temperature range for learning, reading and math’s is sixty-eight to seventy-four degree and that the ability to learn these subjects is adversely affected who do not have school health facilities. Keller (2010) stated that school with good educational health facilities has higher levels of co-operation between teachers, better relation with school administration and more positive behaviours towards health facilities. Also Burkett (2009) found more positive teachers attitude in small schools that planners created in Chicago has a reduced negative behaviour toward health and usage of health facilities and their participation in schools activities, satisfaction, satisfactory attendance and feelings of belong has increase.
Attitude of teachers and students toward health facilities
In schools that are well equipped with the necessary school health facilities, teachers teach with ease and also students are encouraged by the present of health facilities in partaking in school activities especially health activities. Students and teachers in such schools have more positive attitude toward usage of health facilities than student and teachers of agents that were in low concentration might be harmful.
Schools need especially good ventilation because children breath a greater volume of air proportion to their body weight than adults (Moore, 2010) and schools have much less floor space than most found in office buildings. The symptoms of poor ventilation in a building is a build up of carbon dioxide caused by human respiration, when carbon dioxide levels reach 1000 parts per million (about three times what is normally found in the atmosphere) headache, drowsiness, and inability for the students to concentrate ensure, Myhrviod et al. (2006) found that increase carbon dioxide levels in classrooms owing to poor ventilation decrease students performance on concentration test and increased student complains of health problems.
Lighting also plays a very important role in the performance of students and without lighting, student cannot learn effectively. According to Erickson (2007), inadequate health facilities such as first aid, sewage disposal, sanitary conveniences, waste bins, build in school affect teaching and learning process in the school.
References
Ademuwagun, S. (2010). Health Science and School. Lowa: W.M.C. Brown Publishers.
Burkett, H. (2009). Relationship of Students Achievement and Characteristics in Two Selected Schools Facilities Environmental Setting. A Paper Presented at the 64th Annual Conference of the Council of Educational Facility Planner, Edmonton, Alberta Canada, October, 3-7.
Barker, R.G. & Gump, P.V. (2003). Big School, Small School: High School Size and Student Behaviour. Stanford: Stanford University Press
Cash, C. (2013). A Study of the Relationship of School Health Care Facilities and Students Achievement and Behaviour. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Blacksburg: Virginia Polytechnic.
Centre for Health and Health Care in Schools (2007). Guidelines for Maryland School-Based Health Centres – Facility Needs and Requirements. Washington, D.C.: Centre for Health and Health Care in Schools
Corcoran, T. B. Walker, L. J. & White, H. (2008). Working in Urban Schools. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Educational Leadership.
Edwards, M. (2011). Building Condition, Health Care Facilities, Parental Involvement and Students Achievement in the D.C. Public Schools System. Unpublished Master Degree Thesis, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
Ehiametor, L. (2007). Health in Elementary School. St. Louis: C.V. Mosby Company Ltd.
Environmental Protection Agency (EFA) (2004). Indoor Air Quality and Students’ Performance. EPA Report No. 402-F-00-009.
Erickson, D. (2007). Health in Elementary Schools. Saint Louis: C.V. Mosby Company Ltd.
Frazier, L. (2008). Deteriorating School Facilities and Students Learning. ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management Digest, Number 82.
General Accounting Office (1995). School Facilities: American Schools not Designed or Equipped for 21st Century. Washington, D.C.: General Accounting Office
Guo, J., Wade, T., Pan, W. & Keller, K. (2010). School-Based Health Centres: Cost-Benefits Analysis and Impact on Health Care disparities. American Journal of Public Health, 100, 1617-1623.
Harner, D. P. (2006). Effect of Thermal Environment on Learning Skills. The Educational Facility Planner 63(1):28-45.
Hines, E. (2010). Relationship between Health Care Qualities and Students Academic Achievement. Arlington: American Association of School Administrators.
Keller, B. (2010). Small School Found to Cut Price of Poverty. Education Week 19(22),6.
Kennedy, M. (2005). Into Fine Air. American School and University 37:32
Lackney, J. A. (2002). Assessing the Impact of the Physical Environment on the Educational Process. Mississippi: Educational Design Institute.
Laoye, C. (2010). The School Health Programme. London: W.B. Sander Company Ltd.
Lear, J. (2009). School-Based Services and Adolescent Health: Past, Present and Future. Adolescent Medicine, 7,163-180.
Lowe, J.M. (2014). The Interface between Educational Facilities and Learning Climate in Three Elementary Schools. PH.D Diss. Texas University.
Mcguffey, C. (2009). Improving Educational Standards and Productivity: The Research Basis for Policy. California: MeCutchan Pub. Corp.
Meckel, R. (2013). Classrooms and Clinics: Urban Schools and the Protection and Promotion of Child Health. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Moore, D. (2007). Improve Your School Atmosphere. School Planning and Management 37(10),18.
Myhrvold, A. N., Olsen, E. & Lauridsen, O. (2006). Indoor Environment in Schools: Pupils’ Health and Performance in regards to CO2 Concentration. Indoor Air 96(4), 369-71.
Philips, R. (1997). Educational Facility age and the Academic Achievement of Upper Elementary School Students. MSc. Diss. University of Georgia.
Schlitt, J., Juszczak, L. & Eichner, N. (2008). Current Status of State Policies that Support School-Based Health Centres). Advocates for Youth, 12, 2-7.
Schneider, M. (2005). Survey of Chicago Teachers (Unpublished Manuscript). University of New York, Stony Brooks, Department of Political Science.
Spielhofer, T., Tom, B. & Sandie, S. (2010). A Study of the Effects of School Size and Single-Sex Education in English Schools. Research Papers in Education, 133,159-167.