Linking toilets with girl education | Mike Chipalasa

source: The BNL Times

Thursday, 18 March 2010

Stop at Msanza Junior Primary School in Mchinji, you get moving stories of how the existence of toilets and sanitation structures at the school is doing magic on girl education.

Although the school lacks adequate school blocks to cater for its four classes but one thing the pupils are proud of is the presence of toilet facilities at the school.

At the 6-year-old school, both boys and girls have their own permanent toilets. The same case applies to their teachers.

In the middle of the school premises, is a borehole offering clean water, and was drilled with assistance from United Nations Children Fund (Unicef).

Until the toilets and sanitation facilities were fixed, there was prolonged absenteeism among pupils due to lack of toilets, school authorities said.

For the elder girls, it was even more difficult for them to go to the school at the time they were menstruating.

This time, the enrolment for the girl-child has soared at the school because girls now feel comfortable to attend a school where there are toilets and water resources.

Although the picture looks better at Msanza regarding toilets, it is however pathetic in other public primary school across the country.

Currently, government is stepping up efforts to ensure proper sanitation for all the 5, 600 primary schools in the country, singling out the need to refurbish over 4,000 primary school if efforts to retain pupils in school are to bear fruits.

In the drive, the Ministry of Education says it badly needs US$36.8 million (about K5.6 billion) to bridge the gap of proper sanitary and hygienic standards in the country.
The ministry says anything less than the stated amount undermines efforts to protect children from disease and hinders their ability to develop to their fullest potential.

Director of Basic Education, McKnight Kalanda told journalists in Lilongwe last week that his ministry wants schools to have portable water, proper sanitation and hygienic standards but this was possible if partners helped to bridge the existing gap.

“We want you journalists to help us spread the message so that we can fill the gap,” appealed Kalanda, just before a media tour to some selected primary schools as one way of appreciating the extent of poor sanitation in schools.

The ministry, with funding from Unicef, conducted the National School WASH Assessment in 2008 covering 5, 379 schools to analyse issues of water, sanitation and hygiene in primary schools.

The report dated May 2009, which will be launched today in Lilongwe, gives a sorry picture about sanitation and hygiene standards in schools requiring urgent attention.

It says while 81 percent of schools use a protected water source, only 23 percent have acceptable sanitation and only four percent provide hand-washing facilities with soap.

At the cost of US$36.8 million, the ministry says it wants to construct about 1,000 boreholes, more than 8,000 hand-washing facilities and 37,000 latrines in more than 4,000 schools to overturn the situation.

“I would, therefore, like to invite our bilateral partners, United Nations agencies, local and international Non-Governmental Organisations, and the private sector to study this report and see how and where they can assist in providing water, sanitation, and hygiene to the 3.6million children who attend our schools,” Secretary for Education Bernard Sande is quoted as saying in the report’s preface.

The report noted that from the expected cost of US$36.8 million, US$ 8,171,248 would be needed for interventions related to safe drinking water, US$23,715,500 for interventions related to sanitation while US$4,900,056 for interventions related to hygiene.

It also says US$10.2 is needed per pupils to ensure children have rights to have safe water, adequate sanitation and good hygiene in school.
A visit to several primary schools last week in Mchinji, Kasungu and Salima confirmed appalling conditions pupils endure in the country’s primary schools.

Enrolment figures in the visited schools like Msanza, Chankhalamu Junior Primary School and Kamala Full Primary School in Kasungu and Lifuwu Full Primary School in Salima showed girls dropped out of school largely due to lack of toilets.

At Kamwala, where pupils have no toilet, there were 67 girls against 52 boys in STD 1, 51 girls against 13 boys in STD 7 and 11 girls against 14 boys in STD 8, in a school population of 347 girls against 316 boys.

At Lifuwu, where there are two permanent toilets, in STD 1 there were 149 girls against 126 boys, 40 girls against 33 boys in STD 6 and 16 girls against 28 boys in STD 8, which shows a steady decline in girl-child retention rate.

Kasungu District Education Manager, Christopher Kumikundi, said in an interview that most girls faked sickness due to lack of toilets and clean water in the schools, saying this has affected the retention rate of girls.

“Most of the times, girls say they are sick of malaria but the real thing is lack of toilets because they don’t know how to help themselves while in school,” Kumikundi said.

He, however, said in 35 schools in Kasungu where Unicef has provided sanitary and hygienic structures like toilets and boreholes, enrolment for girls has increased sharply.

UNICEF has since built toilets and water facilities like boreholes in several primary schools in the country to help check poor sanitary conditions, largely forcing pupils to drop out of school at an early stage.

According to the ministry, UNICEF has left a gap which needs to be filled by other development partners as well as civil society organisations like NGOs dealing in sanitary issues.