Nearly one in eight schools and colleges have recorded high levels of carbon dioxide in their buildings, according to new data released by the government.
The Department for Education has sent CO2 monitors to schools and other education settings to establish how well-ventilated classrooms are in an attempt to combat the spread of Covid.
In a survey of more than 4,000 schools and colleges carried out by the Department for Education in December 2021 to evaluate the use of CO2 monitors, 12 per cent reported that they had sustained “high CO2 readings of 1500ppm or above”.
However, only around a quarter of these met the DfE’s criteria to receive an air-cleaning unit from the government.
The DfE said that most education settings that identified high levels of CO2 in their buildings were able to solve this through “quick fixes” such as opening windows.
Covid: Schools in need of better ventilation
It said that 3 per cent of settings could not solve the issue of high CO2 levels through “quick fixes or remedial building works”. Schools in this position have been able to apply for an air cleaning unit from the government.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said that schools were “managing a very difficult situation” when it came to ventilation, adding that it was “vital” that schools could continue to apply for CO2 monitors.
A blog published on the DfE website this month said that where ventilation needs to improve in classrooms, “the first step teachers can take is to open windows and doors to improve air flow”.
“But that doesn’t mean classrooms have to be cold,” the blog added, suggesting that windows could be opened during “periods between lessons”.
In the DfE survey 96 per cent of schools said they had been using the monitors provided by the government, while out of the schools using the monitors, 95 per cent said they could use them to identify “when ventilation in a room needed to increase”.
The DfE said it had delivered 353,000 CO2 monitors to schools.
As reported earlier today, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi announced this morning that new funding of £8 million from NHS England would help schools to support in-school vaccination programmes, while “air-cleaning units will be provided in all classrooms and teaching spaces that need them”.
