What's new: PEB and OECD activities

• Ministers' meeting on vocational education and training
OECD education ministers met informally in Denmark to discuss vocational education and training (VET). The Organisation's Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, presented key issues, namely VET in the service of the economy, boundaries between learning and work, migration, inclusion, status and the need for comparative data. His remarks and other meeting documents including the Chair's Summary are available online. ...

• Higher education facilities conference
The PEB Governing Board has agreed to hold a conference entitled “Sustainable Spaces and Places for Learning, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer” in collaboration with the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. The event will be held in May/June next year and will identify global and local possibilities to provide quality environments for higher education. Both physical and virtual environments will be addressed. ... 

Articles

• A New Creative Learning Centre at a Girls School in Australia
Brisbane Girls Grammar School’s new Creative Learning Centre was conceived to group arts studies which were previously scattered across the campus and to serve all students as a meeting place and technology hub. The building is specifically designed to provide the most flexible and innovative environment for teenaged girls, having special regard for the way girls learn and interact socially. The unique design also helps ensure protection from Brisbane’s hot and humid environment. …

• South Africa’s School Infrastructure Performance Indicator System
While some South African schools have excellent infrastructure, others lack basic services such as water and sanitation. The school infrastructure performance indicator system (SIPIS) project offers an approach that can address both the urgent provision of basic services as well as support the development of more sophisticated and more effective education environments over time. ...

• Ireland’s Cherry Orchard National School
This recently completed primary school illustrates how architecture can contribute to creating a safe and warm environment in a difficult area and can meet the particular needs of the student community. In its first year in operation, Cherry Orchard National School is proving to be a successful project. Presented here are the architectural description and comments from the client, the school’s Board of Management. …

• Guide to maintaining ventilation systems in schools
Quebec has published a best practice guide to maintaining ventilation systems, aimed at the physical resources managers of the network of school boards. This 64-page document, which is tailored to the school environment, is now available in PDF format on the Quebec Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sport website. …

• New school design panel in the United Kingdom
The UK Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) will establish a new panel to help local authorities deliver well-designed schools. The new panel will consider the designs from every construction team bidding to build or refurbish secondary schools. The CABE panel will assess their proposals and provide an evaluation to each local authority. CABE will also provide expert support and advice to local authorities leading up to the assessment. …

• The Netherlands’ School Building Prize 2006
The Netherlands’ Ministry of Education has announced the winners of its eighth annual School Building Prize, recognising projects in the primary and secondary education sectors. The ministry awards this prize to encourage school boards to be visionary, creative and professional when building new schools and rebuilding or renovating existing ones. The aim is to provide infrastructure that facilitates the education process as much as possible. The theme of the School Building Prize 2006 was “My school is unique because…”.

• Improving School Earthquake Safety in India
GeoHazards International is working with the staff of Ludlow Castle School and local New Delhi engineers to provide an earthquake-safe learning environment for this government school’s students. The programme is part of a larger pilot project supported by the governments of India and the United States to build local capacity to reduce the risks posed by existing buildings with inadequate earthquake resistance. ...

• Interactive whiteboard for primary classrooms
A pioneer in supplying interactive whiteboards, SMART Technologies Inc. describes how this tool can contribute to the primary classroom. ...

Publications

• Qualifications Systems: Bridges to Lifelong Learning, OECD
• OECD Factbook 2007: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics, OECD
• Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities: What Can Be Done?, UNESCO/IIEP (School building is addressed mainly in chapters 2 and 6.)
• Guide to Post Occupancy Evaluation, HEFCE
• Postsecondary Facilities Inventory and Classification Manual, NCES

Events

• 5-6 June 2007 – "21st Century Learning Environments for all Learners", a conference in Auckland, New Zealand, sponsored by the Ministry of Education.
• 26 June 2007 – “Building Better Schools Summit and Exhibition” in Liverpool, United Kingdom, hosted by the British Council for School Environments as part of the National School Environments Week, bbs@bcse.uk.net.
• 23-24 July 2007 – “Future of Learning: Impact on Design”, a conference in Singapore organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects and the Australasia Region of CEFPI.
• 4-5 October 2007 – “Visualizing the Invisible”, an international seminar organised by the Union of International Architects Working Programme “Educational and Cultural Spaces” in Toronto, Canada, in conjuction with the CEFPI (Council of Educational Facility Planners International) annual conference, bajilk@comcast.net.
• 6-9 October 2007 – CEFPI’s 84th Annual International Conference, in Toronto, Canada.
• May/June 2008 – “Sustainable Spaces and Places for Learning, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer”, a PEB conference on higher education to be held in Finland in collaboration with the Helsinki University of Technology, peb@oecd.org.