The Need for Water-Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools

1. Introduction: Imparting knowledge is not the only task of school faculties
2. Need of hygiene for the children
3. How it can be made in use
4. Conclusion: More schools should opt for this

Is school all about teaching and learning? Isn’t there anything beyond that in schools? Along with imparting education to the students, teachers also should take care of their health. Schools should make good provision for drinking water because students are often seen drinking water from the school’s water purifiers. Sanitation and hygiene in the schools should be taken seriously because these can affect the students’ health.

Hygiene refers to the significance of cleanliness in maintaining good health. An unhygienic lifestyle and bad sanitation is one of the major reasons why people fall ill often. The immunity level of children on an average is weaker than the adults. Thus, they should always be kept in a healthy environment where at least the sanitation is good. It is also the duty of the parents as well as of the teachers to teach the children how to maintain hygiene in their lives and also the good and bad effects of hygiene.

Hygiene is not only maintained by keeping the surroundings clean. Children should be taught to get into a routine of brushing teeth regularly because this habit prevents them from tooth damage and decay. One more habit which must be taught to the toddlers is to wash their hands after using the toilet, coughing and sneezing, after playing with pets and of course before eating.

With poor sanitation children cannot stay healthy and thus, cannot fulfill their education potential. As a result, the sanitation and hygiene factors affect a child’s right to education in many ways. Research shows, around four hundred million school going students are infected by intestinal worms and finally it affects their learning abilities. UNICEF and its partners have focused their resources on improving the sanitary condition, hygiene promotion and life skills development and water facilities in schools. They have also given emphasis on the improvement of health of the school children.

It has been found that a majority of the schools have poor sanitation facility and students of those schools fall ill more than the students of the schools who have good sanitation facilities. Most of the schools do not even have water purifiers. Because of the poor sanitation, students are attacked with many diseases like cholera, ulcers, sores, spots, Diarrhea, Arsenicosis, Guinea worm disease, Typhoid, etc.

Schools can initiate the development of useful life skills on health and hygiene. Children are always enthusiastic to learn and absorb new concepts and ideas. Moreover, when they learn something in their schools they tend not to forget it in their entire life. If they are taught in the schools to maintain hygiene in their lives, they make it a habit for their entire life.

Teachers can act as the roles models not only for the children but also for the entire community. Hygienic behaviors taught by them remain within the people as a life-long positive habit. UNICEF has already taken an initiative to help the schools with proper sanitation facility in more than thirty countries. A lot has been done for the schools so far to promote hygiene and sanitation with the aim of keeping the children healthy.