1,496 schools in Beijing fail lighting standards, main reason is lamp configuration

　　At the beginning of this year, the "Beijing 2010 National Physical Fitness Monitoring Results Bulletin" jointly issued by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and other departments showed that the detection rate of poor vision among Beijing's primary and secondary school students was 60.2%, among which 43.5% for primary school students, 71.89% for junior high school students, and 81.89% for senior high school students. Although the growth rate of poor vision detection has been curbed to a certain extent, the detection rate continues to rise, and there is a trend toward younger ages. In order to better prevent myopia among primary and secondary school students, this summer, Beijing carried out standardized renovation of classroom lighting and blackboard lights in primary and secondary schools. Yesterday, according to news from the Municipal Education Commission, before the start of the fall semester on September 1, the average illuminance compliance rate of classrooms and blackboards in all primary and secondary schools in the city will reach 100%.

　　The increase in "little glasses-wearers," in addition to academic burden, is also importantly caused by unqualified classroom lighting environments. Last year, the municipal and district-level Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on the "School Building Design Standard GB50099-2011" issued by the State Council in 2011, conducted hygiene monitoring of classroom lighting environments in primary and secondary schools across the city. The results showed that the compliance rate of average illuminance on classroom desktops in primary and secondary schools across the city was 60.3%, and the compliance rate of average illuminance on blackboards was only 22.9%. A total of 1,496 schools had unqualified classroom or blackboard lighting conditions.

　　In addition, the relevant person in charge of the Municipal Education Commission stated that the conformity rate of desks and chairs is also a factor affecting students' vision. Monitoring in recent years has shown that the conformity rate of desks and chairs in Beijing's primary and secondary schools is 50.2%.

　　Old lights will be entirely replaced with flicker-free lighting fixtures

　　It is understood that classroom lighting failing to meet the requirements of relevant standards is mainly due to the configuration of lighting fixtures. This time, the Municipal Education Commission primarily replaced and upgraded classroom lighting and blackboard lights in selected schools across 16 districts and counties. Taking blackboard lighting as an example, in order to meet the corresponding illuminance standards, blackboard lights need to be installed on the upper edge of the blackboard—a requirement that had previously been difficult to achieve in many schools. In this classroom lighting renovation, the Municipal Education Commission also uniformly carried out the installation and debugging of blackboard lights. The Beijing Municipal Education Commission stated that, in order to ensure that classroom and blackboard lighting in the city's primary and secondary schools meets national standards by the autumn of 2012, the municipal finance department allocated a total special fund of 96.352 million yuan to support classroom and blackboard lighting renovation projects in primary and secondary schools across the city's 16 districts and counties.

　　It is reported that the lighting fixtures selected for this primary and secondary school teacher illumination renovation were screened from 40 bidding units. According to a staff member of the Dongcheng District CDC, compared with old-style fluorescent tube lamps, the newly replaced classroom lighting fixtures all use lighting fixtures with good flicker-free performance.

　　
　　During this summer vacation, the Black Sesame Hutong Primary School in Dongcheng District carried out a thorough renovation of classroom lighting. Not only were the two rows of fluorescent tube lamps in each classroom entirely updated, but the blackboard lighting fixtures were also fully modified. According to the school's principal Du Jun, in the comprehensive evaluations previously conducted by the district, the proportion of poor vision detection has been relatively high in recent years. "The school has done a lot of work in terms of indoor lighting, desks and chairs, and eye exercises, and the new incidence rate of myopia and the myopia rate have decreased, but there is still a gap from our expectations."