Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

Classroom furniture helps in providing a conducive, comfortable and functional environment for students and teachers in the educational institution. An exploratory research design was adopted and two government aided schools were selected randomly and 30 students, 19 teachers, school administrative head from each school of these schools comprised the sample. Two school furniture design companies were also interviewed for the study to gain a understanding of the newer designs in the market. A pretested questionnaire for teachers and students was designed to elicit the problems faced by teachers and students while using the existing furniture design, observation sheet was used to take the anthropometric measurements of students. Various body dimensions such as sitting height, sitting shoulder height, popliteal height, hip breadth, sitting elbow rest height, buttock popliteal length, ,shoulder breadth, knee height, forearm hand length of students were measured. 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles of the data obtained were computed using statistical package. The existing furniture dimensions in the selected schools were also measured. Thus, there is an urgent need to replace the old furniture with ergonomically designed furniture. The Directorate of education can also form a furniture purchase and maintenance committee in each school for timely intervention. Moreover, the Government should also seek opinion of companies designing school furniture as they have designed furniture with features like adjustable seat to cater to varied body dimensions of students, provision of hook for hanging school bag, provision of storage space, and colorful table tops with laminated material, corrosion resistant metal, and adjustable blackboards.