The need for toilet facilities in public schools should not be taken for granted if communities are to end open defecation.
Former Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana, John Kwame Agyemang-Budu, at the commissioning of a urinal facility for the Asotwe J.H.S, observed the impact of such facilities on teaching and learning.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service (G.S.S) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), only two out of five public schools in Ghana have toilet /urinal facilities and running water.
Asotwe M/A Junior High School (J.H.S) in the Ejisu municipality is one of the schools without a urinal facility.
Pupils are compelled to attend to nature’s call outside of the school premises.
Freda Owusu, a J.H.S pupil, says, “I use the bush as a place of convenience because we don’t have any toilet or urinal facility here”.
Headmaster of the Asotwe M/A J.H.S, Moses Baah, noted the unavailability of toilet and urinal facilities has a dire effect on teaching and learning in schools.
“Students ask permission to use the washroom and they end up going home. This is really affecting the performance of students,” he noted.
Friends of Agyemang-Budu, intervened to build a urinal facility to curtail absenteeism in the school.
The facility was commissioned by the former ECG Director, John Kwame Agyemang-Budu.
He appealed to individuals and corporate bodies to help provide urinal facilities for public schools.
“Without education, you cannot get to a certain position therefore I want pupils in rural areas, especially my district to excel in education. The unavailability of a urinal has really hindered education in this community. This facility will prevent students from running away when they ask permission.
The government can’t do it all, organizations need to emulate what the friends of Agyemang-Budu have done, ” he noted.
Meanwhile, a quiz was organized by friends of Agyemang-Budu for some schools in the Ejisu Municipality to promote healthy competitive education in the area.
“This is the first time we’re organizing this program, and it will be done annually in the district. We want to improve education in Asotwe because we know how important education is,” Paul Opoku, the chairman of the group said.
