School hygiene or school hygiene education is a healthcare science and a form of school health education. The primary aim of school hygiene education is to improve behaviour through hygienic practices connected to personal, water, food, domestic, and public hygiene. [1] It also aims to protect water and food supplies and to manage environmental factors safely. [2]
In his 1915 work School Hygiene, school hygiene expert Fletcher B. Dresslar defined school hygiene as “the branch of this science [hygiene] which has to do with the conservation and development of the health of school children.” [3]
The school was looked upon as existing “not only for the welfare of each child in attendance but also for the welfare of the state and the nation.” [3] Dresslar broke school hygiene up into two essential parts: “the physical environment of the child during his school life” and “the laws of mental hygiene as illustrated by the proper adjustment of the subjects of the curriculum to the mental powers and needs of the children.” [3] [4]
School hygiene emerged as a significant discipline in the United States and England during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reaching its peak influence in this period, with significant works on the subject being offered by various authors, among them Sir Arthur Newsholme, [5] Edward R. Shaw, [6] Robert A. Lyster, [7] and G.G. Groff. [8] After this period, the school hygiene discipline became part of a comprehensive look at school health education; the American School Hygiene Association became inactive, and the American School Health Association was founded. Exclusive focus on hygiene was no longer prominent. [9] School hygiene is still an active, separate discipline in other parts of the world, like Eastern Europe [10] [11] and developing countries where school sanitation norms are not as well established. [1]
Schools can determine children's health and well-being by their exposure to a healthy or unhealthy school environment. [12] There are a lot of architectural and aesthetic aspects related to a school's hygienic needs, such as the school's building plan, safe water supply, disposal of waste, emergency lighting, heating and ventilation, as well as adequate school facilities (halls, classrooms, and common areas) and furniture.[ citation needed ]
For health reasons (influence of noise, exhaust gases from vehicles, and potential risk of accident), schools in urban and peri-urban areas should be located more than ers away from significant traffic and causeways. [10] Some studies suggest it is best to orient and design a school building so that natural light can be a part of the lighting scheme of the school, and that buildings should avoid being placed in a valley, due to air quality issues. [10]
Water supply within the school environment is a critical part of school-based WASH interventions to combat the rate of diarrhoeal diseases among pupils. Pupils who attend schools with inadequate water supply (in which there are no water sources within a 1 km radius during the dry season) that receive WASH interventions (including water supply and water treatment improvements, hygiene promotion and sanitation improvements) usually experience a reduction in diarrhoeal incidences. [13]
Schools have a central place in the health of a community. Inappropriate hygiene in schools can cause many diseases. If there are no school sanitation and hygiene facilities, or if they are not maintained and used adequately, schools become places where diseases are likely to be transmitted. [1]
Diseases associated with inadequate water supply and poor sanitation and hygiene are prevalent within developing countries. Most diarrhoeal diseases in these areas are caused by inadequate and unsafe water supply and poor sanitation and hygiene facilities. [14] Children who have adequate water, sanitation and hygiene facilities at school are more able to integrate hygiene education into their daily lives and are effective behaviour change communicators' in their communities. While communities whose school children have been exposed to disease risk due to inadequate supply of water, sanitation and hygiene services are more at risk. Families are left to bear the burden of their children's illness due to bad conditions at school. [15]
Improved school WASH conditions help to improve student's school attendance; most importantly, inclusive WASH for girls who are menstruating and reducing the transmission of illnesses greatly helps boost school attendance. [16] Evidence has also shown that improved handwashing with soap at school can reduce illness in school going children, ultimately leading to the reduction of absenteeism from school. [17]
Children with disabilities, irrespective of gender, are likely to be affected more than their able-bodied counterparts by inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene conditions in schools, a significant contributing factor to inequality in learning opportunities. Lack of adequate, separate toilets that offer privacy, security and washing facilities may discourage parents from sending vulnerable children (children with disabilities and girls) to school. [15]
From a human rights perspective, WASH in schools is considered necessary. Access to WASH facilities and hygiene behaviour change education in schools contributes to inclusion, dignity, and equity. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mainly highlight the need to expand WASH interventions beyond the household setting in the effort to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for all. [18]
Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refers to maintaining the body's cleanliness. Hygiene activities can be grouped into the following: home and everyday hygiene, personal hygiene, medical hygiene, sleep hygiene, and food hygiene. Home and every day hygiene includes hand washing, respiratory hygiene, food hygiene at home, hygiene in the kitchen, hygiene in the bathroom, laundry hygiene, and medical hygiene at home. And also environmental hygiene in the society to prevent all kinds of bacterias from penetrating into our homes.
Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems aim to protect human health by providing a clean environment that will stop the transmission of disease, especially through the fecal–oral route. For example, diarrhea, a main cause of malnutrition and stunted growth in children, can be reduced through adequate sanitation. There are many other diseases which are easily transmitted in communities that have low levels of sanitation, such as ascariasis, cholera, hepatitis, polio, schistosomiasis, and trachoma, to name just a few.
An intestinal parasite infection is a condition in which a parasite infects the gastro-intestinal tract of humans and other animals. Such parasites can live anywhere in the body, but most prefer the intestinal wall.
Hand washing, also known as hand hygiene, is the act of cleaning one's hands with soap or handwash and water to remove viruses/bacteria/microorganisms, dirt, grease, and other harmful or unwanted substances stuck to the hands. Drying of the washed hands is part of the process as wet and moist hands are more easily recontaminated. If soap and water are unavailable, hand sanitizer that is at least 60% (v/v) alcohol in water can be used as long as hands are not visibly excessively dirty or greasy. Hand hygiene is central to preventing the spread of infectious diseases in home and everyday life settings.
Community-led total sanitation (CLTS): is an approach used mainly in developing countries to improve sanitation and hygiene practices in a community. The approach tries to achieve behaviour change in mainly rural people by a process of "triggering", leading to spontaneous and long-term abandonment of open defecation practices. It focuses on spontaneous and long-lasting behaviour change of an entire community. The term "triggering" is central to the CLTS process: it refers to ways of igniting community interest in ending open defecation, usually by building simple toilets, such as pit latrines. CLTS involves actions leading to increased self-respect and pride in one's community. It also involves shame and disgust about one's own open defecation behaviours. CLTS takes an approach to rural sanitation that works without hardware subsidies and that facilitates communities to recognize the problem of open defecation and take collective action to clean up and become "open defecation free".
Improved sanitation is a term used to categorize types of sanitation for monitoring purposes. It refers to the management of human feces at the household level. The term was coined by the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation of UNICEF and WHO in 2002 to help monitor the progress towards Goal Number 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The opposite of "improved sanitation" has been termed "unimproved sanitation" in the JMP definitions. The same terms are used to monitor progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 from 2015 onwards. Here, they are a component of the definition for "safely managed sanitation service".
Global Hand washing Day (GHD) is an international hand washing promotion campaign to motivate and mobilize people around the world to improve their hand washing habits. Washing hands at critical points both during the day and washing with soap are important. In 2008, Global Handwashing Day was celebrated for the first time. This day aims to make people around the world aware of the importance of washing their hands with soap in order to prevent diseases and infections. To commem.orate this special day, over 120 million children in 70 countries were encouraged to practice handwashing with soap. Since then, the movement has built momentum, garnering support from various stakeholders such as governments, schools, NGOs, and private firms.
The Water and Sanitation Extension Program(WASEP) is an initiative by the Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan to provide clean drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities to prevent the high incidence of waterborne diseases in disadvantaged communities of Pakistan.
WASH is a sector in development cooperation, or within local governments, that provides water, sanitation, and hygiene services to communities. The main purposes of providing access to WASH services are: achieve public health gains, implement the human right to water and sanitation, reduce the burden of collecting drinking water for women, and improve education and health outcomes at schools and health facilities. Access to WASH services is an important component of water security. Universal, affordable, and sustainable access to WASH is a key issue within international development, and is the focus of the first two targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6. Targets 6.1 and 6.2 aim for equitable and accessible water and sanitation for all. In 2017, it was estimated that 2.3 billion people live without basic sanitation facilities, and 844 million people live without access to safe and clean drinking water. The acronym WASH is used widely by non-governmental organizations and aid agencies in developing countries.
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) was a United Nations-hosted organization contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 6, Target 6.2 on sanitation and hygiene. It was established in 1990 and closed at the end of 2020. WSSCC advocated for improved sanitation and hygiene, with a focus on the needs of women, girls and people in vulnerable situations.
Valerie Ann Curtis was a British scientist who was Director of the Environmental Health Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This is a multidisciplinary group dedicated to improving hygiene, sanitation and water in households and schools through enhancing knowledge.
Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outside rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation. They do so either because they do not have a toilet readily accessible or due to archaic traditional cultural practices. The practice is common where sanitation infrastructure and services are not available. Even if toilets are available, behavior change efforts may still be needed to promote the use of toilets. 'Open defecation free' (ODF) is a term used to describe communities that have shifted to using toilets instead of open defecation. This can happen, for example, after community-led total sanitation programs have been implemented.
Water supply and sanitation in Zimbabwe is defined by many small scale successful programs but also by a general lack of improved water and sanitation systems for the majority of Zimbabwe. Water supply and sanitation in Zimbabwe faces significant challenges, marked by both successful localized efforts and widespread deficiencies in infrastructure. According to the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), conducted by UNICEF, disparities persist in access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. While overall access to improved drinking water sources increased to 77.1% in 2019 from 76.1% in 2014, significant gaps remain between urban and rural areas, as well as within urban centers. For instance, 97.3% of urban households have access to improved water sources compared to only 67.9% of rural households. Similarly, disparities exist across regions, with Harare boasting the highest access at 96.6%, contrasting sharply with 64.8% in Matabeleland South. Additionally, approximately 67.8% of households have access to improved, non-shared sanitation facilities, indicating ongoing challenges in this domain. Urban areas, in particular, grapple with chronic water shortages amid rising consumption demands. There are many factors which continue to determine the nature, for the foreseeable future, of water supply and sanitation in Zimbabwe. Three major factors are the severely depressed state of the Zimbabwean economy, the willingness of foreign aid organizations to build and finance infrastructure projects, and the political stability of the Zimbabwean state.
Menstrual Hygiene Day is an annual awareness day on May 28 to highlight the importance of good menstrual hygiene management (MHM) at a global level. It was initiated by the German-based NGO WASH United in 2013 and observed for the first time in 2014.
Emergency sanitation is the management and technical processes required to provide sanitation in emergency situations. Emergency sanitation is required during humanitarian relief operations for refugees, people affected by natural disasters and internally displaced persons. There are three phases of emergency response: Immediate, short term and long term. In the immediate phase, the focus is on managing open defecation, and toilet technologies might include very basic latrines, pit latrines, bucket toilets, container-based toilets, chemical toilets. The short term phase might also involve technologies such as urine-diverting dry toilets, septic tanks, decentralized wastewater systems. Providing handwashing facilities and management of fecal sludge are also part of emergency sanitation.
Sustainable Development Goal 6 declares the importance of achieving "clean water and sanitation for all". It is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly to succeed the former Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the United Nations, the overall goal is to: "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all." The goal has eight targets to be achieved by 2030 covering the main areas of water supply and sanitation and sustainable water resource management. Progress toward the targets will be measured by using eleven indicators.
Water supply and sanitation in Mali is characterized by serious challenges. Unclean water can lead to many diseases that are potentially fatal. Water supply issues lead to a variety of issues throughout the country.
Laos is a nation with plentiful surface water and broad rivers, but outside of cities, water sanitation and accessibility infrastructure is sparse. Few improvements have been made since the end of the Laotian Civil War in 1975, especially compared to peer nations such as Thailand. By 2015, 76% of Laotians nationwide were estimated to have access to “improved” water, while 71% were estimated to have access to “improved” sanitation.
Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) or menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) refers to access to menstrual hygiene products to absorb or collect the flow of blood during menstruation, privacy to change the materials, and access to facilities to dispose of used menstrual management materials. It can also include the "broader systemic factors that link menstruation with health, well-being, gender equality, education, equity, empowerment, and rights". Menstrual hygiene management can be particularly challenging for girls and women in developing countries, where clean water and toilet facilities are often inadequate. Menstrual waste is largely ignored in schools in developing countries, despite it being a significant problem. Menstruation can be a barrier to education for many girls, as a lack of effective sanitary products restricts girls' involvement in educational and social activities.
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