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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Schools see sanitation infrastructure as a 'challenge' -- DepEd

Schools see sanitation infrastructure as a 'challenge' -- DepEd

Published Mar 18, 2021 02:52 pm

While many schools are making great progress in water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions, the Department of Education (DepEd) said that sanitation infrastructure remains a “challenge” - especially in public schools.

Department of Education (DepEd)
(MANILA BULLETIN)

Based on the WASH in Schools (WinS) monitoring report from the school years 2017-2018 to 2019-2020, the number of schools meeting the “indicators and reaching the national standards” has tripled or from nine percent (9%) when the WinS program started to 26.5% of nearly 40,000 participating schools.

However, the same report noted that there are still schools that find sanitation infrastructure challenging “because it demands investment and a longer time for the construction of toilet and handwashing facilities.”

Meanwhile, DepEd noted that the country has been making strides in WiNS program as participating schools recorded impressive improvement in their compliance with the five WASH indicators.

Based on DepEd Order No. 10 series of 2016 entitled “Policy and Guidelines for the Comprehensive WinS Program,” a school has to satisfy the following requirements – safe drinking water, gender-segregated toilets, group handwashing facility with soap, daily group handwashing activities, and sanitary pads – to earn at least a star out of the three-star rating in its WinS implementation

DepEd noted that Western Visayas (Region VI) has retained its position as the “top region” with the highest percentage of schools rising to the national WinS standards with one in every ten schools having a three-star rating.

The assessment also cited improvement in public schools’ performances in areas with less investment such as water, deworming, health education, and behavioral change management like handwashing, toothbrushing routines, and regular cleaning of sanitation facilities

The implementation of WinS is in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), UNICEF, and Save the Children Philippines.

WinS is also one of the flagship programs under the “Oplan Kalusugan sa DepEd” which is a convergence initiative of DepEd’s health and nutrition programs.

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