EDITORIAL: WANTED: DECENT TOILETS FOR ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The government’s initiative to spearhead the campaign to build toilets for public schools across the country – especially targeting female students – will help improve the health status in the schools that would benefit from the project.

Many public schools lack toilets, let along functional toilet facilities, to serve the hundreds of thousands of pupils who attend public schools, especially primary and secondary schools.

As a consequence of the shortage of school toilet facilities in the country, pupils of both sexes have to grapple with the inadequacy by queuing up for a long time before they can relieve themselves in what are to all intents and purposes insecure communal pit latrines.

Such a situation compromises not just their health and security, but also their attendance in class and general psyche as they grow up.

The average ratio of 20 girls and 25 boys per toilet hole in that order is still disproportionate, and unlikely to be reduced in any large measure in the foreseeable future... Or is it?

Indeed, with different campaigns unfolding that aim at reducing the toilets shortage, better days lie ahead regarding availability of functional toilet facilities in the country’s schools and elsewhere.

This is especially the case considering that the government and its development partners are at the forefront in nationwide campaigns to “encourage water, sanitation and hygiene practices in society”.

Parents, guardians and patrons can also play a significant role in improving sanitation in schools (and other communal settings) by contributing to toilet construction projects. It is mainly through concerted efforts that the toilets shortage and related shortcomings can be happily tossed into the dustbin of history.