Viet Nam: where the schools have no loos

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) recently surveyed sanitation facilities in 11,200 schools across the country. “About 30 percent of inspected schools had no toilets or inadequate toilets,” says La Quy Don, deputy head of the ministry’s student affairs department.

A separate survey conducted in Hanoi found that of 1,400 schools nearly all failed to have enough sanitation facilities, says Nguyen Nhu Hoa, deputy head of the office for planning and finance in the city’s education department.

Regulations require one toilet for every 100 students and one tap for every 60 students.

Tran Thu An, a sanitation programme officer with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), says the issue of toilet facilities rarely gets the consideration it deserves. The UN, as part of its “child-friendly” schools campaign in Vietnam, has been trying to focus on proper sanitation facilities. In the past year, it has been working with MoET, helping to design and build better toilet facilities across the country.

Part of the problem is that there are so many pressing needs when it comes to education that sanitation is often the last thing considered. At the moment, the government’s priority is to replace all the makeshift shelters that serve as classrooms with concrete schools that can withstand monsoon winds and rains, says An. Yet when these new schools are built, toilets are not part of the plans.

The responsibility for building latrines lies in part with local authorities and communities, who often lack the funds or interest. So in the end, says An, toilets just do not get built.

Tran Duy Tao, head of administration for the school infrastructure and equipment department at the education ministry, says it is not always a lack of money. [...] In crowded, yet wealthier, urban areas, schools may have the funds but no room to build more toilets.

In 2006, the government declared that all kindergartens and schools would have hygienic toilets and all children would have access to clean water by 2010 [but] at the current rate of construction, it is highly unlikely this goal will be met.

Parents at the Hanoi elementary school were so upset over the dirty facilities and concerns for their children’s health that a few months ago they decided to chip in and pay a monthly fee [US50 cents] to have them cleaned.

Source: IRIN, 17 Jun 2009