AC in School, a luxury or a necessity?

A school with proper fans, light and toilet facilities was a dream come true for most Indians few decades ago. I remember children coming from other schools to my school used to appreciate the number of tube lights / fans in the class.

These days the expectations of parents have increased. Today AC has become an expectation and several school across India are meeting that. Children themselves are used to AC more than ever before. Malls, airport and own homes are all AC. Its normal to get used to comfort and children get used to comfort of AC quite fast. Also the global warming has led to temperatures which are beyond the bearable capacity. To make children even play at such a temperature is difficult, let alone study.

Indian Railways launched “Garib Rath” in 2005 targeting at poor people, as mentioned in the name. Even that train was fully air-conditioned. This means that officially AC is no more a luxury but a necessity. Remember that was 10 years ago.

The founding father of modern Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew (who died recently -23 March 2015), mentioned in one of his interview that his biggest achievement in his life was doing all government offices AC. He said that AC for tropical climate was a boon and it boosted productivity. In his entire life he has not done anything more important than buy AC for offices!

So will AC help in schools?

I have interacted with a few school administrators and teachers who have recently implemented AC in their school. There has been a major improvement in student’s attention span. The children drink less water as they perspire less and they take less bathroom breaks. This leads to more time spent on education.

A major benefit of AC would be reduction of noise from outside the classroom. Air cutting noise of Fans make lecture delivery difficult also. So with AC teacher has to shout less and that way teachers get less tired which improves the quality of their work.

AC rooms will be closed so the entry of mosquitoes is less. As we all know the cases of dengue are very high and such preventive measures are required. Air pollution levels have also increased in India. Dust particles and pollutants are reduced in AC as there is an air filter which cleans the air.

I personally think that India is developing fast and the expectation of parents are changing fast. Even government has been upgrading itself as people are demanding it. I am sure the day is not far that it will be assumed that all A grade primary school will be AC. This will positively impact the academic performance of the students in the medium term, more than any other improvement in the school infrastructure.