DEP-ED URGED TO ADDRESS LACK OF TOILETS, WATER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
MANILA, OCTOBER 11, 2008 (STAR) By Rainier Allan Ronda - The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) aired serious doubt on the ability of the Department of Education (DepEd) to fight the tooth decay problem plaguing public school children with the lack of comfort rooms, wash basins, and clean potable water in public schools.Antonio Tinio, chairperson of ACT, said that with the DepEd’s failure to equip public schools with comfort rooms that have wash basins, toilets and potable water, teachers and principals in public schools could not wage an “honest to goodness” campaign to promote hand washing and tooth brushing in the more than 43,000 public schools all over the country.
“Next to the home, the school should be one of the most important sites for promoting and developing healthy and hygienic habits among the general population starting from the earliest school years,” Tinio stressed.
“However, the government’s evidently cavalier attitude to the provision of the most basic health and sanitation facilities – including the provision of adequate, clean water supply in many schools – remains a huge stumbling block,” Tinio lamented.
Tinio pointed out that DepEd itself has failed to compel the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to build school buildings that are equipped with comfort rooms.
“In the joint DepEd-DPWH amended guidelines for the coordination and monitoring of DPWH-constructed school buildings, the DPWH is enjoined to construct only ‘complete’ buildings. The features of a ‘complete’ building are listed. Unfortunately, comfort rooms are described as merely ‘optional,’” Tinio said.
“This highlights the extremely low priority given by government to the provision of adequate toilet and hand-washing facilities for the use of students and teachers,” Tinio added.
A “universal medical and dental checkup” of the millions of public school children last January to June found that tooth decay and other dental health problems continue to be the number one health scourge of millions of students in public schools all over the country.
Dental check-ups conducted on some 2.389 million students of public elementary schools from January to June found that 70.51 percent or 1,657,776 suffered from dental caries or serious tooth decay.
On top of this number, it was learned that another 541,693 suffer from other oral health problems such as root fragments, retained deciduous teeth, malocclusion, calcular deposit, gingivitis, decubital ulcer, fluorosis, supernumerary teeth, stomatitis, periodontal disease or pyorrhea, and cleft lip/cleft palate.
Next to tooth decay and dental problems, the most common health problem of public school children is pediculosis or head lice infestation, followed by respiratory infection and diseases, skin diseases, and anemia.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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