Why is it important to manage health and safety in schools
Health and safety is a crucial factor for schools and colleges located in Fourways. Ensuring both pupils and students’ safety has been a vital part of the ethical framework for decades. As with the provision of other public services, schools and colleges are legally required to adapt in periods of considerable change.Schools and colleges are often also forced to meet existing and new challenges that come with new structures, accountabilities, concerns from parents, the public and political circles as well as concerns of excessive risks.
Health and safety ethics in schools and colleges
It is vital for a systematic approach towards health and safety risk management to be in place, as it is the ethical thing to do. It forms part of the overall values of school and college to ensure that all staff, pupils and visitors are safeguarded. It also makes provision for pupils and students to become aware of risks.
Where operational good sense is concerned, it also helps to avoid accidents that could result in excessive costs, disruption losses and damage to both the morale and reputation of the school or college. It also allows the school or college with compliance in the duties bestowed upon them under health and safety laws and regulations. 
Legal responsibilities
The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) places the duty on all employers to ensure that, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of all employees, visitors, pupils and students is ensured. OHSA also further provides for legal responsibilities of the employer, the school or college in this regard, in ensuring and meeting the overall duties and care, including adequate policy organisation and arrangements, that must be in place.
This also includes the fact that suitable and adequate risk assessments must be conducted and that staff have access to competent advice and adequate training. Other regulations demand compliance against a wider spectrum of hazards, too. This includes equipment, chemicals, electricity and noise, and when the necessary steps are taken to comply with OHSA, the school or college can defend itself against claims for damages if and when accidents occur on the premises.
Pupils and students may not be considered as employees, but OHSA still applies to their welfare. Every school has unique elements of both low and high risks where health and safety is concerned. Apart from obvious precautions, numerous other factors must also be taken into consideration, including fire escape routes, regular emergency drills and more, which feature a variety of hazards that are often overlooked. This includes science laboratories, play areas, sports fields, parking lots and others. Hazards present in these areas pose a substantial risk to pupils, students, parents, teachers and other visitors to the premises. It is for this reason and more that both schools and colleges must comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
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Risk assessments
As employers in the eyes of OHSA, schools and colleges have a legal obligation to carry out risk assessments that are both suitable and adequate in accordance with the law. When risk assessments are conducted on the health and safety in schools and colleges, risks associated with the facilities and various activities must be detailed. The precautions that must be taken to minimise such risks must also be provided in detail and communicated to all.
School effectiveness
The ethical element of health and safety in schools, that it is the right thing to do, does not merely lead to legal compliance. It also includes achieving and providing excellence in the manner through which health and safety risks are managed and controlled. There are numerous benefits for educational institutions, as it can assist in:
- The prevention of serious injuries.
- The minimising and prevention of work-related illnesses.
- Decreasing lost workdays due to work-related illnesses and injuries, and
- Minimising the costs involved with damage-only incidents, accidents and disruptions arising from such.
Accidental injury rates
It is imperative to consider the accidental rates of schools, especially those of young people. Most young people are likely to be at risk from the age of 10 to 24. Up until the age of 10, most young people are likely to be injured at home. However, young people aged between 10 and 14 are likely to be injured in sports, public or while in transit to and from school.
The most notable types of injury that befalls young people up to the age of fourteen are falls, transport accidents or incidents, foreign bodies entering through either an orifice or the skin, accidental poisoning, burns, venomous bites, drowning and more.
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