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Toilets were an escape from boring classes during school days. ‘May I go to the toilet?’, was a frequent question asked by most of the students in a classroom. Who can pee the furthest and who can pee the highest, was a game which little boys used to play. Girls equally were not short of messing all over the toilet. Oblivious of the hygiene factor, children even today do not find it important to use and leave behind toilets clean. To add to this irony, parents shift the onus on the school authorities ‘as it the school’s duty to clean the after effects and prevent spread of diseases’. Sumati Arora, Delhi Public School, gives some insights on how DPS maintains hygiene in its washrooms.
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Handling four branches of the DPS — Pune, Patna, Coimbatore and Ludhiana – it is essential to continuously monitor and maintain the washrooms during the school hours. The list of activities followed by DPS include —
Monitoring Toilets
- Toilets are regularly manned by staff with a washroom checklist, which is signed by the housekeeping team and the group leader
- Surprise audits are conducted by the teaching and the administrative staff
- ‘Cleanest Toilet’ awards and recognition programs have been instituted to motivate staff for Best Practices
Maintaining Washroom Standards
- Colour coded — Red Wet Mops and Red Dusters are exclusively used for washrooms
- Soap dispensers are provided
- In the boys’ toilet, waterless urinal screens are provided with good-sense odour eliminator and disinfectants
- Stress on Water Conservation is laid through this Flush less System of urinal maintenance
Janitorial Cleaning
- In junior blocks of the school, constant monitoring and cleaning is required
- In senior blocks, the check points are every two hours with a thorough wash after break time and post school
- Cleaning and maintaining toilets with disinfectants and precise chemical solutions is given the utmost priority
- Weekly deep cleaning schedule is followed with monthly jet pressure cleaning
Toilet Training
- Teachers and helpers impart guidance to students with respect to transfer of germs and the area of concern
- Importance is given on using health faucets and hand wash
Regular Hygiene Education
DPS emphasizes on hand washing and propagates the same through the school program — Hanu the Hand- Wash’, wherein ‘Hanu’ is the agent who teaches correct methodology and importance of handwash- This is campaign which includes posters and activities, runs in the school
- To re-enforce the theme, each notebook in the school is printed with Hanu’s Hand
- The students are required to bring their table mats with hand sanitizers, which is followed by wash routine before and after meals
Importance of Clean School Washrooms
The concept of Clean School Washroom Management follows best practices and creates health & wellness for students and staff. Clean washrooms awayfrom- home is a basic human requirement.
The washroom disinfection assures the minds of parents who entrust their children’s well-being.
Creation of a well-scrubbed clean washroom imprints the minds of children with the importance to carry forward the cleanness and sanitized aspects as future citizens and leaders.
Students with varied backgrounds amalgamate in the school campus where they get a good exposure and their young minds develop different aspirations in areas of Health and Sanitation.
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