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South African Schools Act, 1996 (Act No. 84 of 1996)

Regulations

Regulations Relating to Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure, 2023

18. Design considerations for education areas

 

(1) School design must make equal provision for the specific needs of learners, educators and administrative staff with disabilities and for the needs of their physically able colleagues.

 

(2) Obscure glazing must be used in all toilet windows.

 

(3) Boys and girls toilets must as far as reasonably practicable be separated from each other.

 

(4) The relationship of buildings and open areas within the school must, as far as reasonably practicable, allow for natural surveillance for the safety of learners.

 

(5) Passive solar design principles must be employed in the design of all educational spaces to address energy saving and natural cooling, subject to the relevant laws.

 

(6)
(a) Natural day lighting must be utilised when designing classrooms, to minimise the dependence on artificial lighting.
(b) Lighting and shading must, as far as reasonably practicable, be designed to minimise glare.

 

(7) Ventilation must be natural ventilation and must include permanent wall vents and windows with opening sections in compliance with the relevant laws.

 

(8) In the provisioning of windows, ease of operation, natural ventilation requirements and maintaining an adequate level of safety must be taken into account.

 

(9) Acoustic conditions must, as far as reasonably practicable, facilitate clear communication of speech between teacher and learner, and between learners themselves, and must not impede teaching and learning activities.

 

(10) Background noise and reverberation must, as far as reasonably practicable, be reduced to a minimum.

 

(11) Flexibility of usage and the assigning of multiple functions must be a consideration in the design of education areas and education support areas.

 

(12) Innovative design that is efficient, cost effective and appropriate to create an enabling and inclusive teaching and learning environment must be promoted.

 

(13) A school must not be constructed with mud or asbestos material or any other inappropriate material.

 

(14) In the planning and design of schools contemplated in regulation 4(1), school design must comply with the relevant laws, including the National Building Regulations, SANS 10400 and the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993.

 

(15) Where the use of alternative or innovative building technologies is to be considered for the implementation of the norms and standards contained in these Regulations, the provisions of the Agrément South Africa Act, 2015 (Act No. 11 of 2015) must be complied with where applicable, or alternatively the technology must be signed off by a competent person as provided for in the National Building Regulations.