|
Back
Participatory Assessment of Water and Sanitation Facilities
in Schools
CEE Andhra Pradesh undertook
a study of the water and sanitation facilities in schools
and the findings of the study are intended to guide
the process of designing child-friendly water and sanitation
infrastructure in schools.
The School Water Sanitation and Hygiene
Education (SSHE) and Quality Assurance and Inspection
(QA & I) Cell of the School Sanitation Programme
of Department of Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh,
has commissioned a study of the water and sanitation
facilities in schools, in consultation with UNICEF.
CEE undertook this study in April 2006.
The objectives of the study included undertaking a participatory
assessment of water and sanitation facilities in schools
involving students, teachers, and parents, and identifying
and presenting a set of recommendations for improving
the design (hardware and software) of school water and
sanitation facilities, based on such assessment.
The methodology of the study included
sampling, and was interactive and innovative. The study
covered 30 schools in the districts of Medak, Anantapur
and Visakhapatnam (10 schools in each district). These
districts were selected to represent different geographical
conditions in the State. The 30 schools that constituted
the sample for the study were identified by the SSHE
Cell. They included high schools, upper primary schools
and primary schools. The study involved interaction
with students, teachers and parents with a view to understand
their preferences regarding the design of the water
and sanitation infrastructure, and their practices with
respect to its usage and maintenance.
A set of innovative participatory
methods was used to capture the interest of students
and teachers, and to elicit their inputs. Guided tours
of the water and sanitation facilities were undertaken,
in which all the teachers and the students were asked
to take the study team on a tour of the facilities separately,
and to point out those aspects (both good and otherwise)
which they felt were important to note with respect
to the design of the facilities and their use. Flash
cards on water and sanitation facilities in schools
were shown to the students, and they were asked to point
out the positive and negative aspects of the facility
in each card.
Further, the students were asked to work in groups and
design the 'best toilet' (draw it) and to list out the
important features of their toilet. Photo documentation
method was also used wherein the teachers were asked
to take photographs of 5 positive aspects and 5 negative
aspects for each of the facilities (urinals, latrines,
drinking water, hand wash) using digital still cameras.
|
