Managing Physical Facilities and Learning Resources in a School System

School building, school ground, laboratory equipment and transportation are the general terms of physical facilities. These are required to facilitate the pupil and the staff to complete most programs of instructions. Moreover hostel, dispensary and cafeteria are also important to facilitate the individuals in the learning process.

Physical facilities also include those material and resources that a student takes help from during learning such as school library, AV aids etc. Some of these physical facilities are discussed below.

     School Building:

The school building is the most important physical facility. It is the place where children spend most of their precious time and learn not only some factual knowledge but also the ways of life. It is a place for social and moral training. The school building is a microcosm for the whole society. The relation of education with school building is just like the relation of the human body with brain. We see that physical weakness of a person badly affects his mental health and intellectual youth. In the same way, improper and unsuitable building of the school also affect the education of the child badly, because the building of the school has a deep effect on the personality of the child. Therefore, it should be a perfect place for the overall development of the child. It should be attractive and according to the psychological needs of the children.

Following considerations should be kept in mind about the school building

a.     The most important thing in schools building is the selection of a proper site for the school. If the building of school is situated on proper place, education will be better and effective.

b.     The school building should be safe from dust, dirty water, earthquakes and other dangerous phenomenon. Rooms should be built in such a manner that sunlight and air should properly enter the classrooms.

c.      Staff room, record room and clerk office should be built near the headmaster office. Rooms should not be connected so that the noise of one room should not be heard in another one.

d.     Trees and plants must be planted in the courtyard of the school to make it look beautiful and the shade of those trees could also be utilized in summer season.

e.     “A sound mind is in a sound body” this proverb implies the need for presence of a playing area in a school. A school must have a playing area because physical health can be ensured by physical exercises.

f.       The school should have a clean water supply. If water supply through pipes is not possible then hand pumps must be installed in a corner of the school to ensure non-disruptive supply of clean water.
School Dispensary:

In order to supply first medical aid and necessary treatment of minor illness to students. A dispensary should be available in the school. It should also have a school nurse.

In education policy of 1979, it was decided to set a dispensary in every secondary school, supervised by a medical officer. A school dispensary is necessary for the following reasons.

a.     It helps students in case of emergency.

b.     All students can easily be checked up at the time of admission to the school.

c.      Physical weakness of students can easily be brought to the notice of the parents. Certain physical defects such as low hearing, weak eyesight etc can be brought to the notice of class teacher and parents.

d.     A regular inoculation system against infectious diseases such as typhoid, measles etc can be made in school.
School Cafeteria:

The school cafeteria serves as a restaurant and recreation for students. It provides students with tea, coffee, cold drinks, chips, burger, sweets etc during school time. The following considerations should be kept in view in this regard

a.     The materials available at cafeteria should be according to the hygiene principles.

b.     The quality of the food should be better.

c.      The rates and prices should be lower than the market.

d.     The food available at the cafeteria should be a balanced one.

e.     Sweets and other stuffs should be covered with a piece of cloth so that they may remain safe from germs.

f.       There should be arrangement for providing free food to the poor students.
School Transportation:

School transportation is also one of the school physical facilities. The transportation service is carried on with rather high capital investment in equipment for the problem of procurement and maintenance are somewhat similar to procurement and maintenance of other facilities. The transportation program is auxiliary to the industrial program in somewhat the same manner as are building facilities.

Learning Resources

Learning resources have their own role in teaching & learning process. So, there should be proper provision for learning resources. They include the experts, equipment, available and maintained library, record room, maps, globe and AV Aids.
1) Resource Persons:

Well expert and specialized persons in specified areas are called resource persons. They are experienced persons and they have travelled widely. They are invited to share their experiences with the students.

Lectures are arranged for different subjects and the resource person with his detail knowledge discusses with the students. The students get motivated and get firsthand knowledge. They can ask questions and can learn in an interesting manner e.g if a lesson is about Hospitals or Banks, so a doctor or a bank Manager can be called to discuss and talk about his field or demonstrate it with the help of slides etc. He becomes a helper for the teachers.
2) Library:

The facility of a good library should be provided for the students. They should be given all information in the use of library.

i) The students should keep quiet in the library.

ii) They should know how to find a relevant book.

iii) It should be a source of motivation and stimulation for the students.

iv) There should be a very large variety of books, magazines, newspapers and illustrated story books should be available.

v) They should be trained in using a dictionary, reading a map & globe etc.
3) School Diary:

A school calendar is drawn up at the beginning of each year. It gives out probable, dates of various events or works to be done during the year or session. It should contain the following items of information.

i) General, partial and local holidays.

ii) Dates for the submission of monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual reports and returns.

iii) Dates of public and school examinations.

iv) Dates of meetings of school committees, Teacher’s Associations, local excursion, school tournaments etc.

v) Dates of monthly test and the subjects in which they will be held.
4) Instructional Material:

AV aids and instructional material is comparable to text books because they facilitate learning and aid to teaching. Most of the concepts, which are abstract, can be presented in a concrete form with the help of instructional material / Audio-visual Aids. 

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