According to a survey, schools would soon have to upgrade their furniture as the children have outgrown the furniture designed in 1960’s due to increase in height and weight. 

A research conducted by the Furniture Industry Research Association, compared the measurements of 1,500 children in 2001 with data from 1971. It was found that average height increase in children is at a rate of 1cm a decade, with most of the growth in the lower leg. 

Following the findings, the British Educational Suppliers Association, backed by the former education secretary Charles Clarke,have made recommendations to schools regarding upgrading the furniture. The association has warned that the children could suffer from back problems as the result of squeezing into ill-fitting furniture for hours every day.

Dominic Savage, Director General of BESA, remarked that children were taller now a days but obesity also made it mandatory for more ergonomic furniture in schools. He said: "Although our starting point was not a question of obesity, when we looked the average child today is very different to a child in the 1960s, which is the last time children were actually measured for determining measures of furniture."

According to Tim Coles, Professor of Medical Statistics at University College London’s Institute of Child Health, obesity was likely to be the major cause of back problems for children. Between Obesity among children aged two to ten increased from 9.9 per cent to 13.7 per cent between 1995 – 2003..

“Getting fat thighs under desks will become progressively more difficult for children,” he said.