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National | Education

Third of school buildings fail hygiene standards

A third of school buildings don't meet optimum standards for health and hygiene and a similar number fall short of Education Ministry standards for lighting, temperature and acoustics, a government Cabinet paper shows.

The paper says an initial survey found about 700 schools needed to do more work on their buildings than they could afford to do over the next five years, and the government was considering forcing schools to carry out essential maintenance to ensure buildings did not fall into disrepair.