KERALA SCORES POORLY IN SANITATION RATING

Exposing the poor sanitary conditions in schools, only 134 CBSE schools from the State figure in the list of 2,721 educational institutions that are listed under the national school sanitation rating.Schools are rated as per its sanitation status in five colour categories pertaining to infrastructure, institutional sustainability, environmental sustainability, health and hygiene and pedagogic aspects. The rating is part of the board’s ‘National School Sanitation Initiative’ (NSSI) that emphasises the provision of safe water and appropriate sanitation facilities as the first step in the creation of a healthy learning environment.As per NSSI’s website, only 30 schools in Ernakulam had received the rating followed by Thrissur (16), Kannur (11) and Palakkad (10). The remaining districts could not even touch the two-digit mark in the number of schools that had applied for the sanitation rating.

About 1,360 schools are affiliated to CBSE in Kerala up to July this year, of which 130 are in Ernakulam. The Hindu has learnt that many schools were yet to apply for these ratings in view of the serious shortcomings in sanitation conditions that needs to be in tune with the guidelines prescribed in the National School Sanitation Manual.CBSE has also not made the ratings mandatory allowing the erring managements to go scot-free.A principal of a city school that received ‘blue’ rating, which means it complied with 75 per cent to 90 per cent of the norms, pointed out that they were asked to provide answers to nearly 100 questions online as part of the rating process. CBSE officials later visited the campus to ascertain the facilities before awarding the rating, she said.

The National School Sanitation Manual recommends one toilet for every 80 students, taking in to consideration queuing time, peak hours (lunch/break time) and strength of the school.For day schools, it recommends one toilet for 40 girls and a female teacher with one urinal for 20 girls. Schools must have one disabled-friendly unit in each toilet block. There should be one wash tap in each toilet and one hand wash tap per 20 students. The manual says there should be one recessed niche in the wall in every girls toilet to keep sanitary napkins and a minimum of two hand wash dispensers in every toilet block or one soap per two wash taps. Schools should have water storage of 500 litres for 100 children.

                                                Prof. John Kurakar