Strains and sprains were the most common injuries among Rotorua school students last year, with school injuries on the rise nationwide.
Figures released by ACC under the Official Information Act show Rotorua students made 1483 claims for injuries at school in the last calendar year, up from 1411 in 2012.Fractures, lacerations or stings, and soft tissue injuries such as sprains were the top three injury categories, with injury claim costs tallying almost $206,000.
A national teachers union, the Post Primary Teachers Association, meanwhile is warning that unsafe physical environments are putting students at risk of injuries at school. Nationally there were more than 77,453 student injuries in the past year, an increase on 71,753 in 2012, costing taxpayers almost $16.5 million in claim costs. More boys were injured than girls, 46,055 compared to 31,398.
An ACC spokeswoman said the figures were not specific to school hours, school terms or school pupils, and were likely to include people using school grounds for weekend sport or other school facilities for unrelated activities.
Otonga Road Primary School principal Linda Woon said broken arms were the most common injury at her school from children climbing playground equipment or trees at lunchtime. "Kids being adventurous and I think it's kind of like the Kiwi rite of passage really, to break your arm."
Boys and girls were equally likely to sustain injuries. Other common injuries were jammed fingers in doors, which could blow shut in the wind, grazed knees or chipped teeth, she said.
Post Primary Teachers Association president Angela Roberts said the national injury figures created more questions than answers. "Schools are struggling to provide a physically safe environment. Large classes, leaky, mouldy or poorly maintained buildings are placing increasing pressure on school resources and could certainly lead to more injuries. Whether or not these injuries are accident or behaviour-related is something figures like these don't reveal so there are a lot of interesting questions to be asked."
Ministry of Education head of education infrastructure services, Kim Shannon, refuted Ms Roberts' comments and said the Ministry was unaware of any child having been injured in relation to weathertightness issues in schools.
In New Zealand, injuries are the major cause of hospitalisation and death for school-aged children, and ACC has programmes for high school students to learn about reducing accidents.
