Lining Up for Toilets in Schools

Posted by on 19 Jun 2008 by Mighty (Who am I?) in Government

Did you study at a public school in the province? Do you ever remember the state of the toilets or comfort rooms (CR) then?

I spent my elementary and high school years in the public schools of San Manuel, Isabela. Since the water system in our town then was but in its infancy, we had to fetch water from deep wells for storage at the toilet of our classroom. If I remember it right, there was one CR for our whole class of 51. Not too bad.

When I was in high school, I think that figure worsened. Although some classrooms had one CR each, there were rows of four classrooms, I think with a common CR. That means, there was one CR for approximately 200 students. You could imagine, they were poorly maintained. Boy, do they stink!

Recently, I read in the papers that the CR to student ratio has worsened particularly in Mindanao. Apparently, in some provinces in Mindanao, notably ARMM, there is one CR for every 171 elementary pupils, and one CR for every 143 high school kids. I could imagine the kids would have to line up to the toilets just to ease their bladders. Meanwhile, their teachers will proceed with the lessons and recitation. When they enter later, they might even get scolded what took them so long.

Surprisingly, even in Metro Manila, the ratio is bad enough. There is one CR for every 114 elementary pupils, and one CR for every 143 students. I wonder if the MMDA are allowed to construct the cute little pink urinals along the walls of the schools. That might be a good idea except that these urinals stink like rotten garbage. If only there was proper maintenance. The school administrators might simply lament and say “if only there were more funds.” Asking for more toilets would be more like asking for gasoline prices to go down.

Our public school system is in a state of disarray. We lack classrooms. We lack facilities. We lack textbooks. We lack teachers. And now, we lack toilets. On top of that, our teachers are going abroad as domestic helpers and as caregivers. Taking care of the world’s children and elder people is a noble job, no doubt. But what about the state of Philippine education?

I’d like to be hopeful but perhaps that will be for another post at another time. For now, I’ll join Chicken Little in saying, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”