A government move to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities at educational institutions has hardly made any visible progress over the last five years.
The education ministry issued a circular on June 23 in 2015 mentioning that there was a possibility of faster spread of contagious diseases from schools as a huge number of students stay together there.
The circular also said poor management of toilets at educational institutions causes health problems for the girls and their attendants. Most of the girl students fail to attend school during menstruation thus being ineligible for stipend due to poor attendance (below 80 per cent).
Experts said the education ministry completed its responsibility by issuing a circular on improvement of the sanitation facilities at the secondary and higher secondary schools, madrashah and technical educational institutions as there is no strict monitoring on performance of the institutions.
Under the related sustainable development goal (SDG) to build and upgrade educational facilities that are child, disability and gender-friendly and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environment for all, the circular put special importance on better school toilets, as they lack air and light, electricity connection and remain unclean.
Bangladesh has adopted 39+1 SDG National Priority Targets (NPT) for localization of the SDG as priority. Ensuring safely managed drinking water and separate sanitation services in schools has been set as priority targets at the national level under NPT-12.
But a study conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) showed that only two districts gave priority to WASH and nine districts to quality education.
Analyzing the trend of prioritization and localizing SDG targets of 405 upazilas, BBS also found that only 32 upazilas prioritised WASH and 78 upazilas quality education.
Talking to the FE, BBS SDG Cell focal point Alamgir Hossen said promotion of school WASH is necessary as it can contribute to quality education. In the target 4(A) of SDG, there is direct mention of effective learning environment.
Mr Alamgir also said the need for WASH is now comparably vital in a changed situation from the COVID-19 perspective. In educational institutions, there must be three basic WASH services, functional safe drinking water source, functional sanitation facilities separated for male and female students on or near the premises and basic hand washing facilities with soap and water available to all girls and boys.
"In our study that we conducted in 2018 with support of WaterAid, there are unprotected water sources. Over 50 per cent primary schools do not have soap and water in the toilets. The situation in rural schools is worse than urban ones," he said.
Experts say the education ministry's circular on WASH in schools gave the school management committees rhe responsibility to provide financing for WASH facilities. But the financing has become a huge challenge for the school WASH facilities.
BBS found that for a primary school in rural areas, it needs Tk 151and for an urban primary school it is Tk 279. The cost is Tk 281 in rural area and Tk 758 for an urban secondary school. One-third of the female students use pad. The proportion is only 32 per cent in rural areas and 53 per cent in urban areas. It has caused three-day absenteeism of girls in schools per month.
Rights activists say the government now spends 90 per cent of school budget on water. Although there is a national strategy on WASH in school, there is no clear allocation of school budget.
Also the monitoring system of the schools on performance in terms of providing WASH facilities is not in place. The education officials are also not much caring about the WASH issue during their visit to schools.
msshova@gmail.com