Teachers Get Heated Over Class Temperature

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) say the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends 24 degrees as a maximum for comfortable working and regards anything above 26 degrees 'as definitely unacceptable.' Safety law does not set a legal limit for workplace temperate.

The temperature level will be discussed at the NUT annual conference which opened on 6 April. The motion is being put forward by Tim Lucas, a chemistry teacher and NUT branch secretary in East Sussex. It says schools can get so hot there is a 'deleterious effect on the ability of teachers and pupils to concentrate.'

In England, regulations require that new schools should be built so that temperatures do not exceed 28 degrees for more than 120 hours during the school year, but existing schools are exempt. 'Schools are not suited to the warmer summers we have been enjoying,' said NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott. 'Schools do not have air-conditioning.

Those built more recently have a great deal of glass which can push the temperature up quite considerably.' A spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills said schools were included in the Workplace Regulations 1992, which state that 'the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable.'

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