During tight financial times, and since the resources dedicated to the maintenance and operation of school buildings infrastructures come mainly from the state budget, the maintenance and operation budgets are frequently among the first cuts.
Public schools infrastructures often resent themselves from this philosophy, presenting in some cases precocious degradation, generally as the result of the priority on allocating funds to items that directly affect education. It is important to focus on areas such as maintenance, building systems, safety improvements and technology, leading managers to improve maintenance performance of these organizations, if possible anticipating in time problems and opportunities. In this scenario, maintenance audits provide a framework for organizations to systematically review, analyse and recommend improvements in performance. This paper presents the results of a study regarding the Portuguese Educational Buildings, specifically the ones concerning Secondary Schools. It identifies some areas needing improvements, as well as the suggestions made to improve maintenance management, regarding management decision making, human resources, information systems and strategies employed in maintenance management, among others. The paper contains the analysis of the information about the Portuguese Secondary Schools maintenance management that was collected in 2004, with the help of a questionnaire answered by 279 Portuguese Secondary Schools administrations. Along with the information regarding maintenance management, it was also asked school administrations to provide information about the building characteristics and security, both inside and in surrounding areas of the school. Click here to read more