In March, the march of tiny-weeny feet taps the corridors of the schools. The seedling signs of the start of a new academic year. The happy hum of new admissions spreads colours and smiles all around.
However, the first day of a child at the school disillusions some parents when they accompany her to the school. The disillusionment starts when they themselves carry the bag of their child to her class situated on the fourth floor. They are flabbergasted with the weight of the backpack. Next is the number of treads of the staircase their child has to climb daily twice, thrice or even more. The staircase with no or a lower protective handrail increases the risk of any mischievous mishap, and we all know that mischief is the second name of childhood.
The classrooms housed on the last storey, i.e., the third, fourth or beyond, are always at a disadvantage when measured against climatic inclemency. In winter, such classes are colder and in summer, hotter. Though all these can be justified, as adversities make children stronger and bolder, inequality and discrimination prove more deleterious in one given environment. Inequality in the sense that the classrooms on the ground floor or lower storeys are more comfortable than those on the upper storeys. Sometimes, children of the lower storeys make fun of the students of the upper storeys by ridiculing them with epithets and monikers like ‘hell boys’ (in summer) or ‘snowballs’ (in winter).
The classrooms on the upper storeys become more user unfriendly when they don’t provide students with easy access to restrooms. Sometimes, students delay answering nature’s calls because of the long distance between the classrooms and restrooms and also because of fearing the teacher’s wrath for taking a long time to return to classrooms. Hence, they suffer from various health issues related to the excretory system.
The upper storeys find no shade of trees, allowing the sunshine in summer to enter the classrooms, raising the temperature there and making it difficult for students to avoid exposure to the tropical sunlight. The well-knotted ties, buttoned sleeve cuffs and high-hoisted socks make it unbearable for students to stay in the classrooms of the upper storeys. Also, failing to provide open space, the vertical building eats up the opportunities of project-based learning that needs open space.
The commodification of education ignores the students’ comfort. The split small chairs and tables with narrow tops make seating uncomfortable, particularly when the child has to sit in one position for five to six hours daily for days on end. Students don’t like to place their bags on the ground beside them. They are left with no option but to place their bag in an erect position behind their back on the chair and sit in front of it. Just a scant space is left for them to be seated as the volume of their bag occupies the major chunk of the insufficient space on the seat of a chair. Students feel themselves fatigued by such uncomfortability of sitting positions. It demotivates them because they can’t name what they feel at so tender an age.
The classroom furniture of the colonial era in the developing countries was student-friendly. Its remnants are still visible in public schools. The student desks have a long seat sufficient for two students to sit comfortably with their bags in between and a wide desktop for hassle-free reading and writing. The desks also provide a book basket or book rack below the desktop. But just for modernity and lucre, comfort is peripheralised.
Given the relationship between architecture and its psychological impact upon the inhabitants, the vertical architecture causes social stratification. The privileged at the school infrastructure carry off the same superiority hangover. Comparatively, the horizontal architecture of schools develops a sense of neighbourhood and equality among the students. Moreover, the classrooms in the horizontal pattern are built large in volume as compared to those in vertical architecture. The former will impart magnanimity to its dwellers, while the latter, extremism. Infrastructural discomfort breeds in students dislike for schools because what students are made to feel is their takeaway from schools.
Article (Opinion) Published in Express Tribune on April 27th, 2026.
