Design of Ergonomically Fit Classroom Furniture for Primary Schools of Bangladesh

Abstract

Students spend a large portion of their time in school. In this broadened time of sitting, poor fitting furniture can cause various types of musculoskeletal disorders and discomforts. Thus, it is crucial to use anthropometric data to coordinate the arrangement of school furniture. To fulfill this perception, a survey has been conducted in 10 primary schools in Khulna, Bangladesh. Anthropometric measurements were accumulated from 300 students of these primary schools. Seven furniture dimensions were measured and fifteen anthropometric measurements were taken and they were compared to identify potential mismatch. A significant degree of mismatch was found between furniture and student anthropometric measurements. The results highlighted that desktop height and seat height were found too high and seat width was too small for all of the students. The paper also proposes furniture dimensions, which reduce mismatch percentage of students ranging from 90% to 10%.