The Importance of School Repair and Maintenance in Making a Better Learning Environment

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The school is our second home. We spend almost half of our waking hours inside the school when we were still students. On average, we spend a third of our lifetime inside the walls of the classroom. Just as our upbringing have a lot to do with how we live our lives, our school and education also has a deep impact on how we view the world.

However, just as we are tested by time and circumstances, bringing the best and the worst in all of us, time can also take its toll on the classrooms, the hall ways, the cafeteria, the gymnasium, and other school buildings which brings back fond and not-so-fond memories. The roof of the gymnasium had the look that it’s about to fall in at any moment and the rooms badly need repainting as well as the administrative offices. And then, of course, the architecture and design of some of the buildings are so outdated, it seems like stepping into the past.

School buildings and infrastructures are exposed to all weather conditions there is – sun, rain, snow and other elements. It is therefore important that there is a regular school maintenance and repair schedule, a yearly plan to keep the space in good running order. There are rooms to be renovated, drains to be unclogged, walls to be repainted, flooring to be redone, and roofs to be fixed. There are so many details that need to be considered.

There are many companies which offer these services and help the school look its best as well as provide the students the comfort and amenities. Aside from providing education and learning to the students, it is also the school’s obligation to make the education and learning process as pleasant as possible. And by that it means that school facilities are in working order since this is an important aspect of quality education.

School repair and maintenance may not be as evident to the public as the utter lack of some school facilities such as insufficient number of computers for each student or the shortage of teachers and instructors. What many fail to take into consideration is that school infrastructure is a vital component of learning.

Can you really concentrate when you can’t take your eyes off the peeling paint of the classroom ceiling? Is it safe to practice at the gym on a rainy day when there are leaks on the roof? Will you enjoy going to school when the school buildings look like a dilapidated movie set from the 1940’s?

Not really an inviting venue for learning, isn’t it?

Looking after the school through regular maintenance and repair will not only be pleasing to the eye but more importantly, an area more conducive to learning.

However, this entails the problem of funding. Most public school systems lack the budget to put up with the small and the much needed repairs so that the damage pile up and accumulate over the years and it hits everyone all at once that the school has been reduced to something close to a group of old-fashioned, rundown and substandard buildings. If we want to improve the quality of education in our schools and raise the standards of our graduates, we must take the time and the funding to improve the quality of the school infrastructure itself.

This is not as easy as it sounds. The issue has been in contention for quite some time as it is and no compromise is seen to be happening in the near future, especially with the global financial crisis. At this point in time, improving school infrastructure is not seen to be a priority.