What school buildings tell us
Opportunities for transformation in the places where children learn
When I walk into my son’s elementary school in Queens, New York City a big “C” grade for energy-efficiency is prominent on the wall. On one hand that tells a very localized and technical story. This particular building wastes a lot of energy. Its heat escapes in Winter. It has an antiquated lighting system. It needs upgrades.
The C grade is part of a much bigger story too. Of how buildings are major energy consumers and emissions contributors – the latest GlobalABC report has 37% of energy-related CO2 coming from buildings and construction. In New York City the percentage is much higher, hence the multi-year campaigning by Climate Works for All coalition which led to Local Law 97, mandating emissions reductions from big buildings.
It is also a story of how school buildings hold potential for climate and social transformation. NYC recently announced “Leading the Charge”, a $4 billion plan to electrify its school buildings, which in turn aims to combat climate change, improve air quality particularly in environmental justice communities, and create green jobs for the next generation.
It is one of many examples I have come across in which school buildings demonstrate the opportunity of doing things better, and the harm of inaction: on climate, on construction processes, on land rights and more.
In New Delhi, the local government spent around $10 billion between 2015 - 2021 on overhauling the city’s school buildings. Many had no drinking water, smelled of sewage and reached unbearably hot temperatures. The government contracted private companies to upgrade and clean the schools. It hired retired defense personnel as “estate managers” who oversaw repairs, freeing up principals to focus on academics. Attendance and grades increased dramatically.
Journalist Karan Deep Singh in his detailed piece on these changes quotes a 12th grader who previously missed a lot of school. He now says: “I come to school because I know that I can become something”.
Countries including Korea, Italy, Ireland, Australia and the US are channelling (or trying to channel) COVID economic recovery investments into green construction or retrofits of “social infrastructure”, including schools, recognizing the combined benefits for the planet, for education and learning, and for job creation.
This year’s Pritzker award-winner Francis Kéré has drawn attention to the use of traditional building materials to create climate resilient, comfortable and inspiring places to learn, in Burkina Faso and beyond. He says that building a school in Gando, his childhood village, was the starting point of his architectural career. (Check out my story on the 2021 winners, Lacaton and Vassal, here).
School buildings can be vulnerable and subject to shocks too, with ripple-effects for their students.
In Nairobi, Kenya, only six out of every 100 schools has title to its land, making schools susceptible to land-grabs for development. One in 10 schools is involved in a land-related dispute. Hosted by Transparency International Kenya, the ShuleYangu Campaign Alliance uses geo-mapping technology to take stock of public school properties, and is working towards a goal of securing title for 10,000 schools.
Recently I interviewed Eli Friedman about his book the Urbanization of People. He tells the story of the experiences of disruption and stress for the children of migrant workers in China’s cities, through the lens of their school buildings. The buildings are often badly maintained, making it hard to teach and study, and, at the hard edge of urbanization processes, they face frequent demolitions as municipalities sell off their land for development.
In Pakistan, almost 27,000 schools were destroyed or damaged by this year’s floods. Meanwhile in climate-hit areas globally, schools that remain standing often become essential focal points for shelter and assistance.
A lot of what happens for school buildings is shaped, of course, by where money does or doesn’t flow. Lighting and energy-efficiency upgrades for my kid’s school is one of the projects up for votes in our local council district’s participatory budget. Here’s hoping the funding comes through - from the participatory budget or from the Leading the Charge initiative.
A school building is a container of stories, specific and global, about today and about the kind of futures we build or could potentially build.