Classroom Acoustics hold back education?

Terrifyingly, the Mini Divas will start school next year. Yup. Scary stuff. As a parent I am really intrigued by this latest study revealing how much classroom acoustics can affect learning. For example,  a quarter of UK schools don’t bother to comply with a building regulation that ensures our children can hear their teacher in the classrooms... it doesn’t sound like much, but actually classroom acoustics have a really huge impact on the rate of a child’s learning.

 

Just check out the infographic above for some of the disturbing facts. Ecophon UK has conducted a study that reveals the extent of the problem and I am working with them in a Twitter Q&A next week.

For children to gain the most from education, they need an optimum environment to learn. This is the minimum that should be provided to schoolchildren.The reality, however, is that an alarming number of schools are not designed with acoustics in mind.

Children are missing out on their education, teachers are suffering serious health  problems and student/teacher relationships are suffering. This infographic from the guys at Echofon details some of the more striking figures and statistics around this issue, such as:

• A 10db increase in noise causes an average 5% drop in SATs scores at Key Stage 1,  7% at Key Stage 2
• 34% of parents of deaf or hearing impaired children are concerned that school  acoustics aren't up to scratch
• 80% of teachers report vocal strain and other throat problems. Compare this with 5% of the general population

On October 16th at 1pm, I’ll be holding a Twitter Q&A with the guys over at Ecophon, who have produced this research. Do you have something you want to ask them about  how a child’s education is put at risk because of poor acoustics? Just tweet it to me at  @DexDiva with the hashtag #AcousticMatters - let’s clear up the queries and bring this issue into the public eye together!

Website: http://ecophon.com
Twitter: @EcophonUK