Criteria and indicators for assessing School Buildings as an input for a development decision

Abstract

Eeducational environments have a great effect in creating the right atmosphere for students and encouraging their mental and physical creativity. In spite of caring given by the state of Yemen to provide free education, it has been faced with rapid growth of cities, making the educational institution and the local administrations of the cities of Yemen suffer from a lot of problematic pressure in finding learning environments responsive to the needs of its users. Educational buildings didn’t have the necessary attention in the design and implementation processes which contributed significantly to the low quality of the building, and therefore a low level of student scientific achievement. In order for such educational administrations to avoid these negatives and deciding development of the school building – either by extensions, renovations, or constructing new ones - there must be an effective means to allow for a proper evaluation process, and to make schools more responsive to the needs of its users. The research methodology is based on analytical approach for the content of previous studies related to the specifications and characteristics of the good school environment, which improve educational outcomes, also analyzing the most important methods for assessing school buildings to conclude criteria and indicators for assessing school buildings due to the conditions of the study area. The study concluded that the decision of developing the school building should be based on the results of the evaluation according to: 1. a collection of standards that cannot be downgraded, such as walking distances traveled by students to and from school, and student's share of the educational space, and other necessary standards for appropriate educational process. 2. criteria that require the opinions of users and architects working in the office of the Ministry of Education in province of Hadramout in Yemen due to the difference between conditions of the population in the study area and Egyptian and global conditions, and also to be possible to develop specific criteria for Yemen later on.