[Exposure of schoolchildren and teachers to noise at school]

The factor of decisive influence on the acoustic climate in rooms is the inner noise, which is dependent in schools on the activity of children, overcrowding of classes and inadequate use of technical protective means. The inappropriate location of schools, although also important from the standpoint of acoustics, is a much lower source of noise than it is generally assumed. Particularly unfavourable acoustic conditions are in elementary schools with over 300 children in one shift. The spaces with the highest noise level include corridors, especially during recesses between lessons. The noise level in them is in the range of an equivalent sound A 60-95 dB, and the most frequent noise level is 80 dB. In a large part of schools the acoustic conditions in the corridors during recesses approach the critical values accepted for hearing protection in industrial plants, in some schools they are even exceeded. The situation is also unfavourable in other rooms such as doctor's office, director's room, reading rooms, rooms for teachers. These rooms are situated usually without taking into consideration of the acoustic conditions. This is particularly true of teachers' rooms which should give the teachers the possibility of resting before the next lesson. During lessons the noise level decreases in all rooms. However, the noisiest among them, corridors, classes situated near the hall for physical exercises and day-room, have still up to about 65 dB noise level. Generally speaking, in about 60% of rooms the acoustic conditions are below the recommended standard. The main cause, apart from overcrowding of schools, is low acoustic absorption ability of school rooms, and poor acoustic insulation ability of the doors in schools.