School Design Flaws Highlighted

School Design Flaws Highlighted
A number of schools and colleges in Northern Ireland, built by commercial developers, have flaws in their design which affect teaching, a report has said.

But the Northern Ireland Audit Office report concluded that building standards were higher in Northern Ireland than in England and Wales.

The report said teachers should be consulted more at the design stage to avoid defects such as narrow corridors, bad acoustics, poor ventilation and little daylight.

The audit office studied the first examples of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) which has helped speed up the re-construction of run-down buildings.

Under the scheme, private developers put up the money for new buildings and, in return, get a type of mortgage payment and possibly surplus land to use as they wish.

However, the audit office concluded that things could be better.

But it said the use of PFI could clear the backlog of re-building within 10 years instead of taking more than 20 years under normal government funding.

The report also said there should be better prediction of pupil numbers, with one PFI school attracting just over half the children it could accommodate.