The environmental performance of classrooms in Egypt: a case study from El-Minya Governorate

Abstract

The provision of primary schools in Egypt is one of the demanding issues facing the Egyptian government since the earthquake of 1992. In the aftermath of the quake the government has designed a substantial number of primary schools around the country in an attempt to replace schools lost in the disaster. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the environmental performance of classrooms inside eighteen government schools from the El-Minya Governorate. Interviews were conducted with the pupils and the staff of the schools. The authors of the present paper believe that the environmental performance of these classrooms could be better addressed than at present. Accordingly, this investigation was essentially to establish the roots of the problems and to identify approaches for further investigation. One problem is that schools of typical design have been built in varying climatic regions of the country. The results suggest that the majority of pupils and teachers in all case studies suffer from thermal and visual discomfort during much of the academic year inside the classrooms.