Buildings below standard

Wellington: A third of school buildings do not meet optimum standards for health and hygiene and a similar number fall short of Education Ministry standards for lighting, temperature and acoustics, a government Cabinet paper shows.

The paper said an initial survey of 30% of school buildings also indicated nearly half did not support modern teaching methods.

About 700 schools needed to do more work on their buildings than they could afford to over the next five years, and the Government was considering forcing schools to carry out essential maintenance, it said.

The paper said 57% of the 17,500 buildings in state schools were more than 40 years old and that was causing problems. — RNZ