Preparing for a safe return to learning

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30th of September 2020 Article by Jean-Henri Beukes

International education facilities are in the process of fully reopening with staggered start times for the new academic year. With added pressures from students, teachers and parents, educational institutions need to consider external cleaning services with specialised expertise in order to guarantee a safe return for everyone. Jean-Henri Beukes, managing director of Ecocleen, tells us more.

With expert knowledge and years of experience, specialist cleaning services will understand the unique needs of each school and individual learning facilities. They can also work with specific budgets and any challenges that they might bring. External cleaning services look to provide a full site assessment to prioritise cleaning areas around the school, highlighting zones which may need particular attention during this challenging time. It is also critical to plan monthly inspections, set high cleaning standards and access general infection control as students return.

Removing the stress

Outsourcing to a professional cleaning company allows educators to focus on the core challenges of returning to school, and leaves the main hygiene strategies to the cleaning professionals, ensuring an easy and simple process. This means teachers can focus on the bigger picture in hand: making sure students have a happy and healthy return to learning. Many cleaning companies have years of experience and can offer high standards when it comes to hygiene, ensuring educational institutions are guaranteed better hygiene practices. Not only will this take the stress off teachers, but also provide some certainty to students and their parents.

External cleaning services have the flexibility to work around each school to fit in with learning times. This means the service can be provided when it is best suited in the school day, including before and after school hours. However, during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, cleaning throughout the day is highly recommended. This important service is highly scalable and any experienced cleaning professional would be more than happy to work with the educational institution to work out a schedule which works with the overall timings of the day. Ultimately, this means that schools can receive personalised cleaning services, tailored to their specific needs to make it as easy and convenient as possible.

Furthermore, paying for this expert cleaning service will save schools money in the long run for a number of reasons. Firstly, by paying for a higher standard of cleaning means that, in general, the facilities will stay cleaner for longer and therefore will offer better hygiene measures. It also takes the pressure off teachers when providing students with relevant practices in hygiene which may require professional training and will inevitably come with a cost.

Improved productivity and wellbeing

A clean and hygienic environment plays a vital role in the standard of learning. It goes without saying that absence due to sickness can be of course attributed to a lack of hygiene within the school facilities. With the global coronavirus, the urgency to address this problem is highly important. Adding to this, an unclean environment can affect a person's ability to complete normal tasks and overall decreases their productivity. Cleanliness in schools can also improve time management and efficiency, followed by positive wellbeing for teachers and students.

An external cleaning service allows authoritative bodies within the education sector such as teachers to spend their time and effort into more important things: this, of course, includes students. Allowing cleaning professionals to take control of the general cleaning practices in the school buildings means that the hygiene, across the board, is in trustworthy hands. It also allows the experts to put their knowledge to use and utilise the most appropriate cleaning products.

Professional cleaning companies have the knowledge and experience in top quality products to ensure that the environment is as hygienic as possible. Hygiene, before and after the global coronavirus pandemic, is fundamental to a healthy learning environment, as well as being critical to productivity. As a result, students and teachers will be averaging fewer sick days, which will have a positive effect on students learning.

Choosing a reputable and trustworthy cleaning company that has years of experience and knowledge will ensure that the return to school remains safe for all. It is vital to maintain a high standard of cleanliness for teachers and students, and by using industry experts in cleaning, which is now more valuable than ever, should be taken advantage of. Cleaning companies must become more flexible and agile, and work more closely with schools to help identify locations or contact points within the schools that need specific attention.