Officials call for standards for toilets

EACH school in the country should have a toilet for every 25 girls, a senior Department of Education official says.
Assistant secretary for Research Evaluation and Statistics James Agigo said this was one of the standards developed to guide polices made in line with the national health standards which would accommodate Water and Sanitation Hygiene concepts funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
Agigo said standards for sanitation, water, operation and maintenance and others were developed to guide policies which were developed in consultation with the Health and Planning departments.
“We are saying in schools, for minimum standards, there should be one toilet to 25 girls, one toilet to 40 boys,” Agigo said.
“If you use these standards, and you have 1000 children then how many toilets are you looking at?
“Standard for sanitations, we have one standard and different indicators so one of the things we would like to see is for schools to have good toilets with menstrual hygiene facilities.”
Agigo said studies had revealed that girls had been absent from classes during their menstruation because no proper menstrual facilities were placed in school toilets.
Also cultural practices have held back girls from using toilet facilities in schools, he said.
“Standards for water, for a day school is five litres of water per student per day; a water tap is to be used by 100 children,” Agigo said
“The community will be accessing them too and the school will play an important role.
“There must be continuous maintenance and sustainability of water taps and toilet facilities.
Agigo said the policies and standards were for schools under the Education the Department.
“After the secretary signs the document it will be published on the department’s website,” Agigo said.