Could schools help themselves to combat the effects of global warming?

Anyone who has ever had to spend time in Jamaica’s typically crowded, poorly ventilated classrooms can readily testify regarding the extreme discomfort.Indeed, as director for the Institute for Sustainable Development at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Mona Dr David Smith reportedly told Wednesday’s sitting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), learning is negatively affected.“Research shows very clearly that children learn less the warmer it is. It’s not just that they’re uncomfortable and irritable; they don’t learn,” Dr Smith told the Parliamentary committee.And as president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Dr Mark Smith told this newspaper, it’s equally challenging for underpaid, overworked, stressed-out teachers who are often asked to conduct classes with 40-50 students, when half that number is the recommended maximum.Hence, Dr David Smith’s recommendation that classrooms should be upgraded with air conditioning units especially in the context of global warming and climate change, which most experts agree is getting worse because of human activity.According to him “... putting air conditioners in school classrooms is not a matter of comfort and luxury; it is what we absolutely need to build the human capital we need, to get to where we would like to go...”A major challenge is cost, especially in the context of the many urgent needs facing Jamaica’s education sector.As is well-established there are longstanding extreme inequalities among schools in terms of classroom space, laboratories, equipment, et al, as well as specialist teaching expertise.Those generations-old challenges are among the reasons the shift system is still in place in some schools, five decades after it was first introduced as a temporary measure.Yet, as we move forward it is obvious that inadequate ventilation and heat in classrooms can’t be ignored and that upgrades of education infrastructure must be as holistic as possible.We are pleased that louvre-blade windows are now said to be the modern standard for classrooms, allowing for greater circulation of fresh air.Perhaps with the passage of time older, poorly ventilated classrooms — many of which Dr Smith noted were also occupied by parents and grandparents of today’s students — will be appropriately retrofitted.But such has been the worsening climate-warming phenomenon that even classrooms with plentiful fresh air may prove too hot for comfort.All agree that AC solutions can’t be based on fossil fuels. Expense apart, Jamaica is committed to speeding up replacement of environmentally unfriendly fuels with renewable energy sources.As dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at The UWI, Mona Professor Michael Taylor told the PAAC sitting, the need for ACs in schools cannot be divorced from the country’s energy policy.“...We do need to figure out cooling, but we have to do it in a way that is consistent with [energy] commitments...” Prof Taylor said.Air-conditioned cooling of classrooms would be expensive and can’t happen immediately.But also, challenges do provide opportunities. What if our schools which are increasingly embracing vocational training could be mobilised to help themselves by contributing to the development of solar solutions to power cooling systems?That would be a win-win for all concerned.