Ergonomics for schools

Ergonomics in Schools has focused on micro-ergonomics issues such as mismatch between student body sizes and their desks and chairs, the weight of schoolbags and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders amongst school students. Very little of this has been turned into practice. Although advances in this context are being made by the International Ergonomics (IEA) Technical Committee (TC) on Ergonomics for Children in Educational Environments (ECEE), the UK Ergonomics Society Special Interest Group on Ergonomics for Schools and the New Zealand Ergonomics Society Ergonomics/Human factors in Education (EHFIE) Special Interest Group, there has been less focus on macro-ergonomics issues such as learning environments, ergonomics pedagogy and curriculum content/structure. This commentary reviews micro-ergonomics aspects of ;Ergonomics in schools' and argues in favour of a new direction: macro-ergonomics for schools, or educational ergonomics in which ergonomists seek to integrate ergonomics into national educational curricula in concert with Ministries of Education and also via inclusion of ergonomics modules in teacher training.