Evaluation of Leading Safety Performance of Primary School Buildings in Alexandria, Egypt: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Unsafe school buildings may adversely affect students, teachers, administrative workers, cleaning workers, and visitors. Objective(s): The aim of the present study was to evaluate the leading safety performance of public, private, and experimental primary school buildings in Alexandria, Egypt. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 30 primary schools in Alexandria selected by stratified cluster sampling. Two observational checklists were designed, validated, and used; including school building safety inspection checklist (SBSIC), and classroom safety inspection checklist (CSIC). The completed checklists were reviewed and coded. The safety performances (SP) for each category and for the overall checklists were then calculated. Results: The SP in private primary schools and classrooms [(66.1±13.0%), (68.7±12.5)] were higher than that of experimental [(59.9±14.0%), (65.1±14.2%)] and public ones [(39.3±7.8%), (46.0±11.8%) respectively]. The most common causes of reduced school SP were "the absence of protective measures against vectors & insects," "the non-daily refuse disposal," "the non-inspected play areas." Other causes included "the irregular fire drills," "the absence of the alarm system," "the non-earthed electrical equipment," "the absence of emergency plan," and "the unmarked tripping/slipping locations." The most frequent unsafe classroom conditions were "the absence of classroom alarm point," "the on-board glare," and "the non-compliant windows to class area ratios." Conclusion: Many safety violations were found to occur in Alexandria primary schools. This would cause a reduction of the safety performance and consequently a lack of safety management. Safety performance in private schools was better than that in experimental and public ones.