THREE INNOVATIVE WAYS OF DEALING WITH SANITATION PROBLEMS IN BASIC SCHOOLS IN ASSIN CENTRAL DISTRICT, CENTRAL REGION, GHANA

Abstract

This paper, initiated by three members of the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Health) committee in Foso College of Education, was aimed at examining how the implementation of three innovative ways will impact positively on school sanitational habits and their effect on teaching and learning. The study was conducted in three schools in the Assin North Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana. The pupils were selected from different classes through the purposive sampling and census techniques to participate in the study due to the gravity of the problem identified there. Since the problem was a school issue that required immediate attention, action research design was used. The data collection procedure occurred in three stages; pre-intervention stage, intervention stage and post-intervention stage. A pre-intervention observation chart was designed to record the pupils’ attitude towards sanitation. Intervention activities were carried out after the pre-intervention observation using the following strategies: Introducing the Picking Sticks and Class Waste Bins, Recycling Empty Water Sachets into Raincoats to Enhance Punctuality to School during Rainy Seasons and Turning Decompose Waste into Organic Manure. Three student members of the WASH Club of Foso College of Education, an initial teacher training institution, were selected during their consolidating teaching implement the innovative strategies under the supervision of Miss Comfort Arthur, for the lower primary; Miss Ruby Jecty, for the upper primary and Mr. Charles Appiah Nuamah, for the junior high school. During the intervention stage, the pupils were taken through three weeks of sanitation-conscious activities to promote good sanitational hygiene through talk for learning, peer collaboration, hands-on activities to mention but a few. A post-intervention observation was conducted after the intervention to find out the impact of the intervention on pupils’ attitude towards school sanitation. This research type helped the study to identify the causes of pupils’ inability to maintain their environment clean as lack of waste bins, no strict measures to check it, lack of education and common practice in the nation. It was discovered that consciously making learners aware of good sanitational practices helped learners to maintain good sanitational hygiene. Apart from the observation, an interview was used to collect data on pupils’ perception and impression of the activities embarked upon. The data collected showed that when school sanitation practices are effective, learners’ health and academic performances are enhanced in a relaxed condition while their thinking ability is stimulated. Prior to the interventions, the pupils held the notion that there was no need to be particular about school sanitational hygiene. Apart from the peculiar sanitation problem identified in each school, in all three schools, there was an emission of a very strong stench resulting from open fluid excretion everywhere on the school compound. Because of the pressing demand of this fluid excretion, most pupils will be seen rushing out of their classrooms, or during break times and as characteristic of most of the basic schools, where there are neither no urinals or the places are woefully unclean, these pupils are left with no options but to expose themselves and urinate anywhere found convenient on the compound, most often visible to other pupils. This called for temporary washrooms to be constructed in each school. Miss Comfort Arthur who identified the problems researched into the causes, effects and the solutions, and organized the findings into this write-up, the intervention procedures were designed by Mr. Charles Appiah Nuamah designed the interventions to remedy each of the three problems and prepared the final script and finally the results from the pre- intervention, intervention post-intervention procedures were analyzed by Miss Ruby Jecty. The funding for publication was from the Book and Research Allowance paid by the government to tutors of colleges of education in November, 2019.

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