The Importance of Disinfecting Schools for a Safe Learning Environment
Schools are more than just buildings. They are the nurturing grounds for the next generation. For students, faculty, and visitors to thrive, school environments need to be clean, orderly, and well maintained.
According to the APPA, a clean educational environment facilitates successful learning. 88% of students agree, saying unclean spaces cause distraction and disruption. More importantly, keeping your school environments clean is crucial to protecting public health.
Disinfecting schools eliminates dangerous viruses, germs, and pathogens that could harm everyone within your educational institution.
Here’s your guide to overcoming the common challenges of keeping schools clean and hygienic. And why an effective cleaning routine is so essential.
The Crisis in School Facilities
Schools and classrooms are high-traffic environments. They can often struggle when infectious diseases and virus outbreaks emerge. Germs spread quickly, and even routine cleaning strategies can only do so much. Since the pandemic, the dangers of pathogens, viruses, and infectious diseases in schools have only grown more apparent.
Dirty surfaces around an educational facility contribute to spreading germs. Infectious diseases pose a significant risk to both students and staff. They lead to student absenteeism, staff shortages, and interrupted learning. In addition, your institution may be at risk of non-compliance with health and safety regulations.
Many schools struggle with challenges to implement the right cleaning and sanitation protocols. These include:
- Resource limitations: Educational institutions may not have enough expert cleaning staff members to handle disease control and disinfection. These limitations can compromise the safety of staff and students.
- Insufficient training: Janitorial staff in schools are effective with routine cleaning sessions. However, they often lack the training of deep cleaning and sanitization processes. This can lead to germs and bacteria being left to thrive.
- Consistency: Maintaining a uniform cleaning protocol can be difficult when school administrators are working with a wide range of cleaning professionals. This can sometimes mean the right cleaning chemicals and resources aren’t always used.
Addressing these challenges is crucial to maintaining a healthy and safe environment where faculty, and students can feel protected against germs and disease.
The Need for a Proactive Cleaning and Disinfecting Approach
The threat of germs, viruses, and bacteria is a constant concern for any educational facility, and cannot be overlooked. Past outbreaks show that a simple sanitation process is rarely enough. Nor is a reactive approach to cleaning each classroom.
Instead, school administrators should seek the assistance of a commercial cleaning company. Pritchard Industries offers a proactive approach to the cleaning of educational facilities. With a proactive disinfection service, educators and students benefit from:
- Improved learning experiences. Reducing the spread of infectious diseases helps to minimize student and staff absenteeism. This results in a more productive, healthier school environment where learning can thrive.
- Healthier learning environments. A disinfection service helps to create a clean space, prioritizing the health and well-being of students and faculty. This ensures schools can comply with health and safety guidelines, expectations, and regulations.
- Gaining community trust. Schools that prioritize the health and safety of students benefit from a better reputation, gaining the trust and confidence of their community. Ambassadors, parents, and guardians are more likely to trust schools with a proactive cleaning approach.
Proactive cleaning helps you to stay one step ahead of the germs that can disrupt your educational institution and put your people at risk.
Understanding When to Clean, Disinfect, or Sanitize
A comprehensive and proactive approach to school cleaning means knowing when cleaning, disinfection, or sanitization are necessary. There are distinctions between the three practices. For instance:
- Cleaning involves the removal of visible dirt, dust, and debris from surfaces. But, it doesn’t always effectively kill germs and pathogens.
- Disinfection is the process of using specific cleaning chemicals to kill germs and reduce their presence on surfaces.
- Sanitization reduces the number of germs on surfaces to a level specified by public health standards. It’s common in food preparation areas and when cleaning classroom surfaces.
Knowing which strategies to use starts with learning how to identify high-risk areas and their specific requirements. For instance, communal spaces like school cafeterias may require sanitization, while bathrooms and kitchens require full disinfection.
Additionally, it’s important to be aware of the right products, equipment, and techniques to use in any situation. For example, Pritchard Industries uses innovative antimicrobial coatings to help prevent the spread of new germs and bacteria in school settings.
Training and the use of personal protective equipment are important too. Cleaning staff in schools need to know when it’s safe to use a disinfectant wipe or when other cleaning materials are necessary. Moreover, they need to know which PPE to wear for each cleaning session.
School administrators can ensure staff and students are protected by using the right cleaning processes, resources, and materials.
What Can Pritchard Do for Your School?
By far, the simplest way to keep your school clean and hygienic is to work with the experts. With years of experience, Pritchard Industries provides cleaning services to a variety of industries.
We’ve worked alongside countless schools and educational institutions over the decades. Pritchard provides specialist sanitation, disinfection, and cleaning services to suit every need. What’s more, we adhere to the highest industry standards set by groups like the CDC, EPA, and GBAC.
Our services address many of the core challenges schools and educational institutions face.
- General cleaning and janitorial services: Pritchard offers comprehensive general cleaning and janitorial services tailored to the unique needs of schools. This can include everything from removing waste from school common areas to eliminating dust and allergens, wiping down surfaces, and more. Our experienced team ensures your school can offer a clean, welcoming, and spotless environment for students.
- Disinfection for high-touch surfaces: Our services go beyond the basics of standard cleaning. We prioritize the disinfection of high-touch surfaces in particular. This is essential in reducing the risk of infectious diseases being transmitted throughout the school environment. Using advanced disinfection techniques, cutting-edge technologies, and even antimicrobial coatings, we preserve the safety of everyone on your premises.
- Improving air quality: Clean air is fundamental to any healthy learning environment. From HVAC and air conditioner maintenance to the removal of dust and allergens, Pritchard Industries can help minimize the risk of air problems. Our services focus on everything from proper ventilation, to the use of air purifiers.
- Sustainable disinfection practices: For schools concerned about the negative impact chemicals, we offer green cleaning solutions. Our eco-friendly and sustainable cleaning solutions minimize germs and bacteria, without having a negative impact on the wider environment.
With Pritchard Industries as your partner in school cleaning and disinfection, you can rest assured you’ll be able to create the perfect environment for your faculty and students. We’ll work with you to ensure your space is not only clean and hygienic but perfectly positioned to support your learners on their path to academic success.
Contact Pritchard Industries today to learn how we can help you create an environment where learning thrives and health takes precedence.