To be outraged most schools in Queensland Australia have no airconditioning.

[Mammasmitten]

I live in Queensland, Australia and for most of the year it is an average temperature of 30 degrees celsius or higher. Summer is insanely hot. My DD is due to start school next year and I am seriously researching homeschool options as I just can't make her sit all day in a stinking hot classroom risking heatstroke and other heat related illnesses. AIBU to be angry that despite a decade of petitioning, teachers and students are denied cooling for their classrooms and are expected to work in extreme heat. Our prisons are air-conditioned, why the hell aren't our schools.

I'm Qld Australia too and was a P and C president. Do you understand how expensive it is to air condition buildings. Also so many Qld buildings are heritage listed, so hard to cut through that burecratic tape. I agree there should be more a/C but who will fund it. School's themselves can apply for grants and fundraise etc but the government just doesn't have the funds to a/C everything. When I was little no aircon. Same buildings the children are now in.

I work in QLD schools and notice the effect the heat has on children's concentration (I work with kids in small groups and individually). If I were you, OP, I would look for schools that either have AC already (particularly in the younger grade classrooms) or are planning/fundraising for it.
Like many things though, it seems that the majority of kids will adapt and get on with learning, but for those kids who struggle, excessive heat can be another thing that holds them back by not helping their concentration.

I thought they all had air con. My nephews school in Brisbane does.

Just because I disagree with you does not mean I am disrespectful OP.

If you don't like the heat, then perhaps you should live elsewhere is a common sense approach.

AC is a luxury - many schools can afford it, but many more can't.

You seem to have totally missed my point regarding only really needing AC in Dec, Jan and Feb.

Clearly you have your views and will only entertain those who agree with you.

Happy Winter. Over & out.

GoldenMcOldie there is nothing disrespectful about disagreeing with me or anyone else. There are clearly respectful ways to communicate that you disagree on something. However, telling someone that they should leave or move to another state is not respectful or considerate of that person's choice to live somewhere and not feel that they have to justify their living arrangements with you. Respectful people generally respect that people have their reasons for living where they do and would not take it upon themselves to tell someone to go live somewhere else. But that's just my opinion, you don't have to agree with me.

They should put it in. Our primary NSW state school had it in every room, and now our two private secondary schools (low cost private, Faith schools) both have it too.
They manage to pay for it.
And the P&C didn't/doesn't cover it - I was the P&C Treasurer.

So just send them to a private school. Catholic schools are very affordable. Maybe if fewer people used the state system there would be enough money for air-conditioning.

Moving to a different state is actually a much better way of sending a message to the local government fyi

And solar panels don't actually offset the environmental cost of making them in the first place. I just don't think you are being at all realistic here. Queens land is Australia's most Conservative state. They aren't going to raise taxes just to air condition public schools.

Healzam I am aware of the expense. I have worked in early childhood including at some schools. I have attended annual general meetings and examined the budgets. I just don't believe it is a good enough reason and believe where there is a will there is a way. Also, some people can manage money better than others and I have seen how incorporating the expertise of a financial adviser can help a school or childcare centre manage funds better. Clearly not everyone believes cooling our classrooms is enough of a priority and that is probably the main reason for little to no action.

ConversationCoat and PenelopeFlintstone thank-you for your input

So just send them to a private school. Catholic schools are very affordable. Maybe if fewer people used the state system there would be enough money for air-conditioning

Maybe if government, both state and federal stopped funding schools on the basis of their adherents having an imaginary friend, there would be more money for government schools.

Oooh hang on....numbers at non-government schools are falling, and guess what, the independents are asking for more money to make up for having fewer students.

That would be unlike government schools who have funds cut when numbers fall.

Do the kids have enough essential resources for their education - such as stationery and textbooks? Do they have sporting equipment? Can they go on excursions and camps?

The reason I ask the above is they don’t fall into the category of ‘luxury’ or ‘good to have’, yet many schools and children go without them as funding is lacking. I’d fund or fight for those first before the A/C. You sound like you could make a change - how about that one?

'Do the kids have enough essential resources for their education - such as stationery and textbooks? Do they have sporting equipment? Can they go on excursions and camps?'
Theclaws parents have always provided and paid for their own children's textbooks, stationary, school excursions, camps and a whole lot of other equipment too. I thought most people would know that. Parents also pay school fees. On top of that many parents and students are involved in fundraising for their schools. Let's not forget that even government schools are not wholly government funded and provided for free, parents pay for it. Assumptions that children are missing out on basic resources and assumptions that government provides all those resources are ludicrous and don't support your argument against air-con for our schools at all. Come back when you have done some research. I really am only interested in valid opinions based on actual knowledge/experience.

Mamma. You really are only interested in your own opinion and the opinion of those who agree with you.

The bottom line is that not all schools have the necessary funds to control the climare in your child's class.

You have a very entitled attitude. We live in the tropics. It's hot. Get over it or pay to go private.

OP, I have plenty of “knowledge/experience”. Are your children actually in school yet? Parents do not provide the bulk of resources children require - in fact, as many parents can’t afford very basic resources (such as pencils and notebooks), some teachers provide them out of their own pocket. Obviously this is a terrible situation. Resources within a school extend to computers/Smart Boards/stocked libraries - all of which I’d say are more important than air conditioning.

Those saying that children ‘don’t notice’ the weather are very wrong. I’ve always lived in Australia and some of my clearest childhood memories are of sticking to chairs with sweat and even having to lie on the floor with a flannel on my forehead to try and stay cool. I used to also regularly get nosebleeds at school in summer due to the heat.

It really isn’t a luxury to have air con in places where it is consistently hot in2018.Australia is one of the richest countries in the world and has managed to find 65 billion dollars in tax cuts (including to the big banks ). Yes I know that is federal vs state funding but it still co es out of the same big pot.

Nsw here. No aircon over half the classrooms are demountables due to rapid growth of area a school designed for a max of 300 kids now has near 1000. The kids have yet to be sent home due to temperatures despite recordings of 45+ in some of the rooms. My son actually fainted due to the heat which unfortunately also worsens his asthma. I now keep them home on extreme heat days.

The prison population of Australia is about 40,000 so each of the circa 11 million adults of working age has to fund from their taxes about 0.4% of the cost of keeping one inmate cool on the hottest days.

The number of young people of an age to be in full time education is about 5 million so each adult of working age would have to pay about 50% of the cost of keeping one child cool on the hottest days - more than 100 times as much.

Humans are very adaptable and able it like in all sorts of climates. If your family doesn't have the genes for thriving in heat then why not consider moving to a more moderate climate?

It always amazes me the rationalisations some make to justify cruelty - especially towards children

Not having air conditioning is cruelty towards children?

Fuck that for a joke.

Those saying that children ‘don’t notice’ the weather are very wrong. I’ve always lived in Australia and some of my clearest childhood memories are of sticking to chairs with sweat and even having to lie on the floor with a flannel on my forehead to try and stay cool. I used to also regularly get nosebleeds at school in summer due to the heat

I said that as a child I did not seem to notice the heat, it was just another warm day, we could take off our shoes and socks and carry on with the day. So I am not wrong as you say, as it is what i recall. People do react differently to different things. I can tell you the time I was freezing cold riding to school on my bike though. We didn't have heating in the winter either.

Humans are very adaptable and able it like in all sorts of climates. If your family doesn't have the genes for thriving in heat then why not consider moving to a more moderate climate

If the OP had posted that a UK school had no heating you wouldn't be saying that.

You have a very entitled attitude. We live in the tropics. It's hot. Get over it or pay to go private

So only those with money can be comfortable? Those in private schools are funded out of taxes, which includes the taxpayers who can't afford to send their kids to those same schools

Those in private schools are funded out of of taxes

echt This isn’t true for Australia.