Ergonomic Considerations in Design of Workstations in Primary Schools

Nowadays, schools have an important role in children’s lives because many students spend most of their day and childhood time there. On the other hand, as these school years are the years that children grow very fast and their bodies take shape, the furniture used in the primary schools can have serious effects on their body structures. Classroom furniture has changed during years according to important values such as student’s needs and their physical and psychological requirements. The importance of providing ergonomic furniture in the primary schools is widely accepted now. The ergonomic furniture provides students with a better chance to maintain a correct body posture while doing their tasks in the classrooms. The noticeable issue which should be considered in school furniture design particularly the workstations (composed of chairs and desks) is that they should support students’ bodies while attending in the classroom and doing all various kinds of tasks, to prevent further disorders such as back pain, pain in the wrists and neck region, and to reduce fatigue. Moreover, due to variations in body dimensions and proportions in different societies, the furniture designed for the children in one society might not be suitable for the others in another region. Thus, the design and selection of this furniture should be done very carefully and based on proper information. Unfortunately, not much researches are available to designers (as well as authorities) involved in the process of design and selection of this kind of furniture. This shortage of information is even more serious in relation to Turkish children and the suitable school furniture for them. This research concentrates on the importance of using ergonomics furniture for primary school students and the effects of it on the students’ learning and well-being. The purpose of this study is to expose proper ergonomic guidelines which help designers to design and create school furniture which improves students comfort, performance, and behavior. To achieve the above mentioned aims, all factors related to ergonomic workstations in schools such as posture, body measurements, safety, etc. were explored to create a theoretical base to characterize criteria which then were used to formulate a guideline to be used by the designers in this field. The checklist provides designers in Turkey and Cyprus with the necessary dimensions for design of workstations in this country’s primary schools. It also can help designers in other regions to find the proper school furniture dimensions for their target populations as well, based on anthropometric data of each region.