The cries of the have-nots shall always go unheard and if those tears echoing on for infinity belong to our school children, then it’s time our innate depravity learned some bounds. As children are our future and schools are the institutes where our priceless future is to be molded and groomed, then I suppose it’s about time we shook off our apathy and approach problems like poor school building structure, improper location etc. with a little more objectivity and compassion. The disparities in the various types and standards of school curriculums prevalent around Bangladesh are enormous to say the least but we will discuss what healthful school environment stands for and how we must change things in the near future.

Schools in general should serve as demonstration centres of good sanitation to the community but unfortunately we are nowhere close to upholding optimum standards.

 As a part of their regular programme implementation, Water Aid and VERC, two nongovernmental organizations assessed the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) facilities of several schools from selected upazilas in Rajshahi. Though the government standard requires having one toilet per sixty students in a school, it was found that only one toilet was being used by around 175 students on an average which is almost three times higher than the agreed national standard of WaSH in schools. Though it was found that 88% of these schools have water points, the students stated that due to the decreasing groundwater table they do not get adequate water from these sources round the year. Most of the studied schools were found poorly managed and unhygienic. Unfortunately no appropriate arrangement for hand washing was found.

Schools in urban areas have better physical facilities in terms of hygiene, sanitation but a huge majority of these schools lack playgrounds, adequately furnished classrooms. Distance from the house, lack of proper roads/ foot over-bridges/ transport facilities, further compounds the scenario.  

Our children’s right to healthy school environment is of paramount importance. We cannot be complacent with the way things are going; changes in infrastructure, bribery , nepotism and dissonance between various segments of the public sectors, NGO’s and stakeholders must cease if our children are to prosper and contribute to society. (Reprint)

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