As far as I know, the lack of insulation is more a cost issue than anything - It seems that insulation is a sort of imported thing at this point. We considered building a house, and about died when we saw how much it would cost to do thorough insulation.
Double paned windows were even 6 times the cost of UV cut normal windows.
Another factor, in my opinion, is the cost of energy for heating and cooling to begin with. Even with all that insulation, it`s still going to cost you such an ungodly amount to heat or cool a single room that you really aren`t going to save that much. Even if my house were insulated extremely well, it would still cost me so much to heat or cool it that I don`t think I would ever get my money back for the insulation.
So even with insulation, we`d probably stick to tiny space heaters and rarely used AC in single rooms.
I remember back 4 or 5 years ago when I visited the house of someone who`d built a western-style insulated house and had a US style AC/heat pump system..... And they told me how much their power bill was each month in the summer. 80,000.
I`ll pass.
AC with the windows and doors open, and the down blowing ceiling fans really are a mystery to me. Sounds like stupidity more than anything. Is your school doing that? I can`t imagine how much their energy bills must be. *shudder*