HYGIENE ON THE TIMETABLE

Given the headache that sanitation currently presents for communities all over the country, it is surprising that emphasis is not being put on teaching sanitation and hygiene in schools to inculcate such habits in children at an early age – as used to be the practice in the past.

People of a certain age still speak with nostalgia of their school days when even teeth and fingernails were regularly inspected at school and pupils were allocated plots on the school compound to keep clean and tidy.

The need to go back to teaching hygiene in schools was reportedly on the agenda recently when school health committees of the Ghana Education Service in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District, Volta Region, met.

As reported by the Ghana News Agency and published in this paper on June 17, members of the committee called for the introduction of hygiene as a co-curricular activity in basic schools. In their view, that would help to ensure cleanliness among students as well as sanitation in schools and communities in general.

The call was made at the conclusion of a training workshop organised by the GES, and sponsored by the Danish International Development Agency, to update the skills of the members in the district.

The committees expressed concern about the poor sanitation in schools in the country and its negative effects on quality of teaching and learning. They observed that many basic schools either don’t have toilets, or have toilets that 'compromised good sanitation'. We hope that she will see to it that this is done.

The District School Health Education Programme Coordinator, Ms Valeria Akuffo, reportedly urged schools without toilets to build latrines as well as connect water to their compounds with the assistance of their communities.

We commend the GES for organising the workshop, and DANIDA for the sponsorship.

It beats understanding that in this computer age, there are still schools without toilets.

We recall the fury of MP and Senior Minister Mr J H Mensah when in February 2004, he discovered that a 15 classroom school block in his constituency, in Sunyani, had been constructed without toilets.

How can we be sure of teaching the young sanitary habits, or of winning the sanitation war, if people who should know better gloss over such important things as provision of toilets in schools – and even dwelling places?

For, it is also a fact that in this country there are places, including Accra, where houses are built for occupation by tenants but have no toilets.

When schools are built without toilets, how are the children and staff, supposed to manage?

We urge the GES to take serious note of the concerns expressed by its own school health committees in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District because they were talking about a nationwide problem.

It goes without saying that it is important for children to be taught the importance of sanitation.

Furthermore, not only should hygiene be on the timetable, all schools should be provided with toilets so that the children are not restricted to just the theory of the subject.