SAFETY AND HYGIENE

INTRODUCTION

School hygiene or school hygiene education is a healthcare science, a form of the wider school health education. School hygiene is a study of school environment influence; it explores the impact of schooling to mental and physical health of students.

The primary aims of school hygiene education is to improve behavior through useful practices connected to personal, water, food, domestic and public hygiene.Also, it aims to protect water and food supplies and to safely manage environmental factors.

School hygiene expert Fletcher B. Dresslar explained in his 1915 work School Hygiene that “School Hygiene is the branch of this science [hygiene] which has to do with the conservation and development of the health of school children.” 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.”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.”

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 aren’t maintained and used adequately, schools become places where diseases are likely transmitted.

School security encompasses all measures taken to combat threats to people and property in education environments. One term connected to school security is school safety, which is defined as the sheltering of students from violence and bullying, as well as exposure to harmful elements such as drugs and gang activity. Along with other public places, schools are at risk for invasion from outside as well as attacks from students or faculty because of the high traffic of potential assailants and availability of victims.

School children spend about one third of their time either in schools or doing school assignments, during which time they may be exposed to a variety of physical, social and psychological harm. Schools provide an ideal opportunity to detect poor hygiene practice by children.

The water supply and sanitation conditions of schools have become a public health concern in recent years. A Ministry of Health report in 2007 about school hygiene in Ethiopia indicated that the majority of surveyed primary schools did not have access to drinking water sources or adequate sanitation facilities for handwashing and excreta disposal. School dropouts are observed among female students due to a lack of latrines with facilities for menstrual hygiene. The report also found that the hygiene knowledge of the prevention of communicable diseases was poorly understood by students.

ACTIVITIES AT ST. ELIZABETH PUBLIC SCHOOL

The specific key objectives are as follows:

  • To raise awareness and understanding of the impact of the physical and cultural environment on children’s health in primary schools;
  • To increase the priority for developing environments in primary schools that promote health hygiene and sanitation;
  • To focus on behavioral change of the children & community through students and develop a role model school for replicability.
  • To ensure basic sanitation including water supply at the schools and use them as entry points for the promotion of sanitation and hygiene in the wider communities.

Strategy

  • Provide adequate services (fire and safety etc.), particularly sanitation and water using appropriate technologies and taking consideration on O&M by the school themselves.
  • Focus towards total school environment and school management from a sustainable point of view.
  • Partnerships formed and strengthened with government line agencies and Local Authorities to ensure cooperation and support.
  • Participatory approaches to meet the objectives, and to be able to empower and promote their role in planning, implementing, managing and monitoring services.
  • Regularize the programme activities for long term through local motivation and ownership.

Priority

For the betterment of students’ health there are many issues that need to be dealt with. But the following points would be better to consider as prime messages in the school:

  • Keeping the environment, compound and classrooms clean.
  • Constructing toilets, garbage-pits, soak-pits etc. and using/maintaining them properly.
  • Setting up convenient hand washing facilities and encouraging them to be used.
  • Providing safe drinking water.
  • Giving proper practice for the students and teachers on disaster management and the use of fire and safety gadgets available at the school premises in a need.

 

Objectives:

The main objective of the orientation/workshop is to orient and give specific knowledge/skills and discuss the related issues for the promotion of sanitation and hygiene in the school and community.

Expected Outcomes:

The following are the expected outcomes of the orientation:-

  • Understanding and systematizing the process on sanitation and hygiene promotion.
  • Implementing the school sanitation and hygiene programme activities.
  • Supporting the community level sanitation activities.
  • Organizing the school safety and disaster management programme activities.
  • Organizing a programme and activity on disaster management.

Components of school hygiene and sanitation

The provision of school hygiene and sanitation ensures the rights of students to acceptable hygiene practices, safe water supply, latrines and a healthy school environment in general. The impact could have further beneficial effects, for example:

  • Healthy environments facilitate more effective learning.
  • Opportunities for students to gain life-long positive hygiene behaviors.
  • Opportunities for increased school enrolment, retention and attendance for girls.
  • Our concern as a health worker is the need to check systematically:
  • health-related policies in schools
  • hygiene
  • safe water supply

Hygiene can be defined as the practice of certain habits to maintain a good health. It can be at the personal level (personal hygiene) and at the community level (social hygiene).

  • Personal hygiene: Personal level hygiene includes cleanliness, physical exercise, proper rest, and sleep and other habits like avoiding smoking, drinking alcohols, drugs etc. Majority of diseases can be prevented by keeping a good personal hygiene.
  • Social hygiene: Society includes the surrounding we live and other public places. A good environment has a great impact on the physical and mental condition of an individual. The untidy and improper way of disposal of waste in public places leads to unhealthy conditions. These lead to uncontrolled growth of rodents and disease-causing and carrying microbesand make us ill. Hence social hygiene is as important as personal hygiene.

Disease 

A disease is a term used to define the uncomfortable condition or discomfort we feel. The term disease-free is entirely different from the term being healthy even though they are correlated. A disease is diagnosed by certain symptoms and signs. Educational institutions are the best places to instill values in the impressionable minds of the children. Hence, value building and character building should be commenced at schools. Though the importance of cleanliness is taught at school since the early classes, children should be given hands-on experience and training in maintaining cleanliness.

The schools should involve the students in maintaining cleanliness at school. Students should manage the cleanliness of their own respective classes. In some of the schools, it is the duty of school children to maintain cleanliness of their own classes. This practice is purely done with the purpose of inculcating a sense of responsibility in them and to make them sensitive and aware of the importance of cleanliness.

As the entire nation is abuzz with the cleanliness drives and campaigns under the impetus of ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyan’ launched by the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr. NarenderaModi, students can do phenomenal work in making cleanliness a successful campaign. In order to maintain cleanliness at school, students should make cleanliness monitoring committees consisting of some prefects in every class. They should not let any student throw litter either in the class or anywhere else in the school campus. These committees should work in coordination with teachers, vice-principals, and the principals.

Components of School Safety

Physical environment refers to the level of upkeep, ambient noise, lighting, indoor air quality and/or thermal comfort of the school’s physical building and its location within the community.

The physical environment of the school speaks to the contribution that safe, clean, and comfortable surroundings make to a positive school climate in which students can learn.

  • Physical environment is related to both student achievement and student behavior.
  • Decent, safe, and secure facilities are essential to successful educational programs.
  • Physical environment is related to teachers’ levels of absenteeism, effort, effectiveness in the classroom, morale, and job satisfaction.
  • Physical environment of schools is often mirrored by the physical environment of the surrounding neighborhoods in which they are located.

 

The safety and welfare of our students and staff are our highest priority. In order to maintain a safe environment for our students to study and learn, it is necessary that we practice our emergency and crisis response plans routinely. The purpose of the emergency drills is to keep the students safe from any danger outside or inside the building. Emergency and fire drills are conducted with our students to exercise our procedures. The goals of the training drill are to improve our ability to protect students and reduce injuries. They allow us to evaluate our emergency operations plan and improve our response skills.  We want each student to be aware of the importance of emergency drills and not be afraid when an alarm is sounded. By practicing they will know what to do and how to do it.

To protect students, in case of an actual emergency, students will only be released to the parents and/or other adults listed on the student’s Emergency Contact list. Please ensure that this information is updated and accurate. It is a good idea to have several trusted adults on the list.

Safety Drills:

We wanted to share the safety drills our students will participate in as part of our comprehensive safety plan. The goal of practicing the drills is to help our students feel safe at school and to know what to do should an emergency arise. We are sharing this information with you so you may discuss the drills with your students. We practice drills once per month. Below is a brief description of the types of drills that will be practiced:

Evacuation/Relocation: How to exit the school in a quick and orderly manner.  This is most typically used for a fire drill. Each class follows an exit route and is accounted for while waiting quietly with teachers outside the building. We have designated sites and protocols for relocation to another site if needed. No one can enter the school during an evacuation.

Soft Lockdown: How students are kept safe inside the school when there is a potential threat outside of our school but no real, actual threat yet. Staff closes the blinds and make sure all doors are locked. Business as usual continues within the school and parents are able to enter the school through the main office.

Lockdown: How students are kept safe when there is a potential threat within the school or nearby. Students practice staying quiet and unseen within classrooms, closest classrooms and restrooms (if they are not in their classroom). If on the playground Students will learn the signal to stop what they are doing, enter the school through the closest door and proceed to the closest safe area within the school. Nobody may leave their classroom during a lockdown and entry into the school is not permitted.

Earthquake Drill: How to move students to a safe place in our school and how to utilize the “DROP, COVER, & HOLD” position. Students will move to designated safe areas outside of the buildings.  No one can enter the school during a Earthquake Drill because the office staff will be in their designated safe areas.

Shelter in Place: How to secure the room from a chemical hazard. Students will move to designated safe areas inside of the buildings and staff will secure the rooms. Nobody may leave their classroom during a Shelter In Place and entry into the school is not permitted.

School Bus Evacuation Drills: Students exit the bus upon their arrival to school to practice for an emergency evacuation.  Performed annually, in the month of September.

 

We strongly encourage talking to our students about what to do both at school and at home in the event of a crisis.During an emergency situation, parents are strongly encouraged not to come to the school, due to the heightened risk and should only attempt to arrive at the school after the state of emergency has been lifted. Should an emergency re­sponse be called for, it’s important that emergency vehicles be able to reach the campus quickly and easily. Parents who attempt to come to the school may obstruct emergency vehicles’ access and even endanger themselves, or their children. Do not panic. In emergency situations police and school officials are together and in coordination following predetermined procedures that will best insure the safety of all involved.

 

Our top priority is securing the site and ensuring the safety of all students and staff on campus.Now that school has started, we realize that there will be students walking to and from school.  As a result, we decided it best to share some basic reminders about stranger danger with you. We have included some information for you to share with your child when he/she comes home. It is important to periodically remind your child about safe practices on the way to and from school. It would be helpful if our parent community could reinforce this important message with their children.

 

There are a number of basic safety rules kids can follow that will increase their awareness and lessen their chance of being harmed.

  • Children should not get into a car or go anywhere with any person unless their parents have told them specifically that it’sokay.Our students may only ride home with parents or people listed on the emergency list given by parents.
  • If someone follows your child on foot or in a car, he/she should stay away from him or her. Don’t go near the car or get inside it. Get to a crowded, well-lit place where others can help.
  • Don’t go anywhere with a stranger. Don’t respond to anyone they don’t know well even if the person asks for directions, help to look for a lost puppy, or tells them that their mother or father is in trouble and that he or she will take them to their parents.
  • If someone tries to take them somewhere, quickly get away from him or her and yell: This man (woman) is trying to take me away or This person is not my father (or mother).
  • Kids should always use the buddy system. Go with a friend, never alone.

Children are strong, and they have the right to say NO to someone who tries to take them somewhere, or makes them feel uncomfortable in any way.

 

CONCLSUSION

Our top priority is securing the site and ensuring the safety of all students and staff on campus. To meet the challenging demand of safety and hygiene of our students and staff management is bound to keep the policies intact.