Weekend Today can report that the lack of proper toilet facilities have become a major problem facing most public primary and junior high schools (JHSs) in the Ningo-Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region.
Investigations by the paper have revealed that state-owned schools including Prampram Wesley Basic School, Prampram Freeman Basic School have no toilet and water facilities, a situation which was adversely affecting teaching and learning in these schools.
Our visit to some schools in the area on Thursday, January 18, 2018 showed that many of these schools were faced with very scraggy-scruffy, dirty and soiled toilet facilities.
Weekend Today discovered that whilst some of the schools in the area had toilets, their restrooms did not have doors or water system for users’ convenience.
For instance, our checks revealed that about 80 per cent of nursery, primary and JHSs at Prampram have no toilet facilities.
The situation, according to some teachers who spoke on condition of anonymity, had compelled both the teachers and the pupils to defecate in the bush.
A primary school teacher, who has been in the teaching profession for the past 20 years, said: “The issue of non-availability of toilet facilities has become part of the public school system in this part of the Ningo-Prampram District.”
“It is not even being regarded as a priority at all. So, over the years, we have become accustomed to using the bush, where it is available,” he added.
Defecating in the bush, according to the teacher, is very dangerous as they [the teachers & the pupils] could be attacked by snakes or bitten by poisonous reptiles.
He added that it was disgusting for a teacher like him to rush into the bush like a hunter to answer to “nature’s call.”
At the Prampram Wesley Basic School, some of the pupils told Weekend Today that where they use as a place of convenience was very appalling, compelling them to use handkerchiefs to cover their noses to avoid offensive smell that emanates from the toilet.
A third-year JHS pupil who also spoke to Weekend Today on condition of anonymity said he contracted diarrhoea from their school toilet, and could not stay at home.
Our investigations also showed that sanitary conditions at Prampram Wesley Basic School were nothing to write home about. The toilet facility at the school had a bad odour.
One of the pupils in the school who gave her name as Korkor Amartey had this to say: “promises were made to us by government at the beginning of the year to improve on the facility, but those promises are yet to be fulfilled.”
The story was not different from Prampram Freeman Basic School: the toilet facility here too was dirty that many prefer to hold what they should have given out freely from their bowels till they get to a convenient place.
As for the girls, Weekend Today was told that they prefer to defecate in black polythene bags and throwing into a nearby bush rather than using the toilet facility in the school.
Open defecation has also become a common practice among pupils and teachers in the public schools in Prampram, which is against the World Health Organisation (WHO) prescription of a healthy living.
In an interview with Weekend Today some opinion leaders in the area lamented the poor condition of toilets in the area.
According to them, “unsanitary conditions typical of many school toilets in the area send the wrong message to students about the importance of good sanitation and hygiene practices.”
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