School furniture is an essential supply component of Education and Child Survival. Studies show a direct connection between comfortable school furniture and increased learning and development of children in classrooms. UNICEF Product Innovation has recently introduced an open source portfolio of child-friendly school furniture designs which are built locally with locally available materials to support local production and ensure activity-based learning outcomes. Manufactures are welcome to utilize the technical drawings and specifications commercially. UNICEF welcomes any feedback and communication of use to innovateforchildren@unicef.org.
Benefits of the child-friendly school furniture
Facilitate learning and teaching: Improved comfort level of children sitting in classrooms for extended periods of time will lead to better learning. Similarly, teaching methods will be facilitated with the new easy-to-move, light weight modular furniture that is designed to give teachers better access to each and every student in the classroom.
Efficiency: The new designs will allow efficient use of raw materials in a low resource setting, thereby having a positive impact on the environment and promoting appropriate use of scarce resources.
Sustainable growth: Local production of furniture will help build the local capacity of manufacturers and reduce reliance on importing ready made goods. While boosting local economy, local production will make maintenance easier and lengthen the life span of furniture.
Transport: Flat packed furniture will be easy to transport, handle and assemble resulting in significant cost savings in transportation, low carbon emissions and fewer incidents of damage during transit.
Technical drawings
