Low door handles in schools could be a safety issue, an official with Britain's Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills warns.

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Christine Gilbert, chief inspector of the governmental department, said Friday that schools should be determining whether their door handles are low enough to put students at risk, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"If a primary school has door handles that are too low or low enough for 4-year-olds to get off the site you would ask the school what they are doing about it," Gilbert said. "If they were negligent in dealing with that security risk it would impact on the judgments, because that is a very simple thing the school could be doing to protect its children."

The Telegraph said Gilbert's comments coincide with reports from British schools regarding negative marks the educational sites received under new and more stringent inspection regulations.

Among the reported issues were school doors left open on warm days and typing errors on registers, along with a lack of appropriate maintenance of school footpaths and perimeter fences.