The Impact of School Infrastructure on Learning. A Synthesis of the Evidence

The quality of education infrastructure, specifically its appropriate educational planning and design with a focus on child development, has been widely discussed in recent years. The Sustainable Development Goals1 , which are defined by the United Nations and scope the development agenda for all countries in the world, require countries to “build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive, and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive, and effective learning environments for all.” Many stakeholders around the world are seeking evidence on how various learning settings may positively or negatively affect child development. Therefore, there is a need for more evidence on the effectiveness of these educational infrastructure investments. This book focuses on how school facilities can affect children’s learning outcomes, identifying parameters that can inform the design, implementation, and supervision of future educational infrastructure projects. It reflects on aspects for which the evidence could be strengthened, and identifies areas for further exploratory work.

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank / DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-1378-8 

The principal authors of this report are Peter Barrett and Alberto Treves. The report involved the conceptualization, review, and editing of the text carried out by a team of World Bank staff that included Diego Ambasz, Senior Education Specialist; Tigran Shmis, Senior Education Specialist; and Maria Ustinova, Education Consultant. 

Peter Barrett is a past President of the United Nations-established International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction. He is Emeritus Professor of management in property and construction at Salford University in the United Kingdom and honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education at Oxford University. Barrett is an International Advisor to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the U.S.-based Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and the American Institute of Architects. More recently, Barrett has researched the theme of senses, brain, and spaces with an interest in school design and achieving optimal learning spaces. 

Alberto Treves is a School-Building Specialist with more than 1,000 projects completed in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. He specializes in the early steps of the process, having created master plans, written design manuals and specifications, developed school designs, and advised governments and private institutions on capital improvement projects. He holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Buenos Aires, and a certificate in educational facilities planning from the University of California, and he is a member of the Council of Educational Facility Planners International. 

Publication is published under ‘open access’ or under the author’s permission and copyright of the work belongs to the author.