DepEd locks up faucets, toilets in public schools to prevent stealing

An official of the Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday appealed to the public to help some public schools keep their toilets and faucets which are now being kept under lock or metal grills to prevent thieves from stealing them.

DepEd Undersecretary Alain Del Pascua, in a press conference for the 7th Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) in Schools International Learning Exchange (WinS ILE) in Quezon City, made this appeal as the department continues to receive reports that public school hygiene facilities, including toilets and faucets, are being stolen by some members of the community.

Pascua noted that some of the school’s faucets have to be locked in metal or grill cages to make sure that they are not stolen.

“It’s so sad to note that while we put these facilities in the schools, they are being stolen in a matter of days,” he said.

DepEd, Pascua noted, does not normally hire guards for deployment in public schools.

“Now, we are forced to put guards in schools because some facilities are being stolen.”

Pascua noted that DepEd continues to improve its programs – particularly the WinS “but every time we try to improve our programs, there are limitations and several steps that we need to undertake.”

To help make sure that students in public schools have access to clean water and toilets, Pascua enjoined school personnel and other members of the community to work together in keeping these facilities inside the school. “We are appealing to our communities to let all those facilities remain in school; don’t bring them home because other students and teachers will be using them and the community can also use them,” he said.

Pascua noted that in the previous years, there was no budget allocated specifically for toilets and water facilities in schools. “But now, we tried to find ways to creatively incorporate this into the budget for school buildings – we now have classrooms with toilets and hand-washing facilities,” he shared.

For its Last Mile Schools Program, Pascua said that DepEd will put up separate toilets and hand-washing facilities for the learners. “We are proposing motorized water pumps powered by solar panel system to make sure that they have sustainable water supply,” he added.

DepEd is currently hosting the 7th WinS ILE. From November 11 to 15, where international delegates from at least 16 countries gather to tackle sanitation and hygiene in schools to achieve United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) or Quality Education.

With the theme “Taking WinS to Scale in Support of SDG 4,” the five-day ILE will facilitate learning on WASH in Schools among countries in Asia and the Pacific as part of the parameters in achieving SDG 4. The Philippines is considered a WinS model country internationally with its mature level of implementation and practices since hosting the first WinS ILE in 2012.