Abstract
Background: Toilet facilities among many other facilities ought to be present in schools to promote hygiene and meet the physical and emotional needs of staff and students. Objectives: The study assessed school ownership, availability and type of toilet facilities in secondary schools. Methodology: This was a school based observational study. An interviewer administered semi- structured questionnaire to selected staff and students in fifty-three secondary schools was used for data collection. Results: Day and boarding schools were 71.7% and 28.3% respectively; 75.5% privately owned. Forty five schools (84.9%) had toilet facilities, while 1/6th of the schools had none. Water carriage toilets (water squatting and water seat) comprised 20 (21.6%) while the non-water carriage accounted for 55 (59%). Twenty-nine (54.7%) provided toilets facilities for the different sexes while 24 (45.3%) did not. A non-statistically significant association (p = 0.034) was found between ownership of school and type of toilet facility provided. Conclusion: About 76% of schools were non-governmental of which 92.5% had toilet facilities. Half of the schools made separate provision for the different sexes. Recommendation: Schools should ensure the sustainability of good sanitary practices through the provision of toilet facilities in schools.
Highlights
Facilities for academic and non-academic activities need to be properly put in place to provide an optimal sanitary environment which is safe and conducive for physical, mental and emotional health of the student in order to achieve maximum benefits from educational programmes. (Joshua 2004, Vernon (2003) Human excreta which form an important cause of environmental pollution need to be properly disposed through modern methods that are socially and culturally acceptable to the people. (UNICEF 2009, Dworsky 2007) Apart from its availability, the facilities should proportionately meet the demand of the population of both students and members of staff in such institutions
Inadequate or lack of toilet facilities has its health implications, some of these may be bacterial, viral and parasitic in origin such as typhoid and paratyphoid fever, dysenteries, diarrhoeas, cholera, hookworm, ascariasis, viral hepatitis, schistosomiasis, guinea worm diseases, genito-urinary tract infections and a host of other intestinal and parasitic infections or even eye infections like trachoma which may lead to blindness, which can occur due to environmental pollution as a result of indiscriminate disposal of human excreta and inadequate sanitation
Most of the private schools provided the water-carriage toilets which is in line with the Nigeria National policy guidelines of school toilets facilities which stipulates that schools should have water-carriage system fitted with squatting bowl to facilitate easy flushing with small quantity of water, while promoting the construction of multi-compartment Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines in rural areas.(Federal Ministry of Environment 2005) Conducive school environment promotes learning and imbibes good morals in the students
Summary
Facilities for academic and non-academic activities need to be properly put in place to provide an optimal sanitary environment which is safe and conducive for physical, mental and emotional health of the student in order to achieve maximum benefits from educational programmes. Toilet facilities among many other facilities ought to be present in schools to promote hygiene and meet the physical and emotional needs of staff and students. Objectives: The study assessed school ownership, availability and type of toilet facilities in secondary schools. A non-statistically significant association (p = 0.034) was found between ownership of school and type of toilet facility provided. Recommendation: Schools should ensure the sustainability of good sanitary practices through the provision of toilet facilities in schools
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