Rest of the World
36% Of Public Schools Without Toilets, Says EMIS
Access to regular water supply According to the Education Management Information System (EMIS) for the 2016-2017 academic year, even though about 65% of all basic schools had latrines, only 42% had access to water supply.
Known as the National Costed Strategy for WASH in Schools (WinS), the strategic document, which is expected to be implemented from 2018 to 2030, seeks to cover public basic schools, including all public kindergartens, primary and junior high schools (JHS).
At a stakeholders’ consultation workshop to validate the strategic document in Accra, the Chief of WASH at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mr David Duncan, painted a rather gloomy state of hygiene in schools in the country.
He said for instance that two out of every five children went to school without toilet facilities and were forced to defecate in the open, while more than half of schoolchildren attended schools that had no water facilities.
Major challenge Describing it as a major challenge, Mr Duncan said if the current trend was allowed to persist, it meant that “we are looking at a whole generation of children potentially going to school without toilet and without water to wash their hands.”
