AN organisation working for the promotion of sanitation recently approached EDO Education, Chakwal, to persuade him into issuing a circular on the functioning of public-school toilets. “Am I expected to involve myself in such things now?” The EDO frowned.

Earlier, a survey undertaken by the organisation had revealed that with most public-school toilets locked or out of order the students of these schools were resorting to using the open outdoors for the purpose of relieving themselves.

Being informed about the problem, the education official then circulated the unusual order for the school heads to either take account of the situation or face action against themselves for it is known that all awareness campaigns of this sort fall flat until the government school teachers receive such kind of official circulars.

Another thing that I have come to learn during my own five-year association with the School Improvement Programme (SIP) is that although public schools keep crying for basic amenities they fail to keep them functional.

School toilets that are not in use can turn into dangerous and scary places. I once encountered snakes when I asked the teachers in a girls’ primary school to open the toilets so that we could check if they were functional and in use. On another occasion I got stung all over the face when I was attacked by a swarm of wasps after opening another abandoned toilet in a government school building.

The practice of defecating in the open among government school children is a phenomenon not limited to any one area as this can be observed all over the country and especially in the rural areas and inner towns.

Locked or blocked toilets are common sights particularly in primary and middle schools. The school authorities there use them as stores or even kitchens to prepare their break time tea.

Member assemblies and local and international development agencies during the past decade or so have done much, though not everywhere, to provide water and flushable toilet blocks in schools. Sadly most of them are not accessible to the children. Sometimes the teachers themselves make use of the facility. As a result the children can be seen hiding behind a bush or going up into the hills to do the needful.

I have on many occasions asked poor rural parents why they send their children to private schools when education in government schools is free. Their answer is more or less the same every time: “They will at least learn some ways of life”.

Providing toilet facilities to school children may not be something that we spend time thinking about but the dignity of young children is something that should not be undermined. Besides resorting to the outdoors to answer nature’s call makes them vulnerable to all kinds of diseases as human faeces contain 10,000,000 viruses, 1,000,000 bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates 40 per cent cases of diarrhea at school. The disease is globally responsible for the death of 4,000 children each day. Many more are irreversibly debilitated and stunted by illness during their early years.

Children in the developing world lose 272 million school days due to diarrhea. Pakistan continues to bear a loss of some Rs80 billion each year for the treatment of diarrhea. Health experts say the impact of diarrhea in children under the age of 15 years is greater than the combined impact of HIV and AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.

Diseases such as these put a burden not only on the health and economy of a nation, they also contribute towards absenteeism and the dropout rate in schools.

tanveer.ck@gmail.com