1. There are 9825 schools in Malaysia (both primary and secondary) with a total of approx 5,464,751 students (sources from Ministry of Education as of Jan 30, 2008 )
2. Each school I would imagine to have an average of 2 toilets each for boys and girls which totals 4 per school, and in some cases another one for teachers. So we can assume here that we are talking about approximately 50,000 toilets all in all.
3. Hygiene is something that the Malaysian schools take very lightly and no matter what is printed in the school books about hygiene education, the reality is that almost all toilets in schools are in such a disgustingly dirty and “last” world condition. It’s current state is a haven for germs and bacterias.
4. Yours truly went to primary and secondary schools in the city and I would even say that these schools are some of the top schools in the country but despite the glowing list of alumni they produce, their toilets reflect a state of disaster literally. Why is it like this? I dread to imagine school toilets in rural areas or smaller towns!
5. The reason why public toilets (even in the best buildings in town such as the KLCC and KLIA) are dirty, smelly and guaranteed unhygienic is probably due to the fact that when we were small and easily impressionable, we grew up with dirty toilets in school. We expect toilets at home to be clean but when it comes to the toilets in school, it would be a miracle if it was just 30% clean. Why?
6. Does the Ministry allocate a budget for overall cleaning and hygiene maintenance in all the 9825 schools? If so, how much spent annually per school? Is it executed through cleaning contracts or does the responsibility lie squarely on the respective school itself?
7. How can we overcome this lifelong problem on shameful school toilets? Do we expect students to clean it? I remember most of us had to do this in school one time or another (some more than others!) and i think it is unacceptable. Not because we should not learn the discipline of cleaning toilets BUT to expose children to a high grade of unhygienic and disease prone surroundings are just as good as committing a crime!
8. If the Ministry of Education can propose in the next budget for an international (proven) hygiene cum cleaning company to undertake the revolutionized makeover of each toilet on a maximum budget of RM10,000 per toilet x 50,000 toilets amounting to a total cost of RM500m where the Govt would only spend 50% of that budget from its coffers and the balance RM250m is borne in part by the Parents Teacher’s Association PTA (say RM2,000 per toilet) and the remaining by the chosen international company (provided they agree!) and compensated by a long term cleaning contract of up to 20-30 years at RM10,000-15,000 average per year per school PERHAPS. I am just making very simple financial assumptions because my point is not on the contract details but more so, the urgent need to address the toilet cleanliness and hygiene issue in schools the most efficient and innovative way.
9. This results in a Govt OPEX spending of RM100m per year for all 9825 schools. For that international company undertaking this “concession”, even though RM100m sounds like a staggering amount to most of us, it is not even sufficient to cover the cost at all! The RM10,000 (approx RM833/mth per school) would have only resulted in approx RM166 per month per toilet!
10. How do we make up for the “below cost” situation and upfront CAPEX capital on their part? Even if the Govt can spend the entire amount to “overhaul” toilets in schools, it should never award via tender to local companies. This is one case where economies of scale will really help. And the highest level of cleaning services cannot be compromised. The sheer volume of usage in schools require a hardcore maintenance policy and not the current once a week or every two weeks cleaning (i am assuming).
11. The Govt should take the bold move of allowing “progressive advertising” in toilets. 50,000 spaces with a captive reach of approx 5.5m should interest a large number of advertisers who see children as their prime target market. And the concept of advertising here can be somewhat flexible and interactive in the sense that it can change according to message offering (to reflect the timing it appears), focused subject matters and also territorial mix (to reflect different target markets) praying very hard to not be subjected to vandalism!
12. What do i mean by progressive advertising? I am sure many here are already saying “we cannot allow commercialism in schools” but i beg to differ. Whether we allow it or not, children these days are exposed to all types of advertising and commercial propaganda outside of the school. Even school busses today outsource their space to advertisers. So why not exploit it for the good of the students? At least in a systematic and controlled way, we can censor what is marketed. Progressive advertising here need not mean “buy bubblegum” or “come play the latest sony play station” but rather, we can have advertisers that promote elements of health, self help, educational activities, leisure etc. Banks can start their mind share efforts in educating children to save, media/tv stations can promote educational and scientific programs, colleges can promote courses and career choices post school and many more benefiting type approaches. Guidelines can be set, audited and monitored.
13. The reason is simple. We expect a proven international company to renovate the toilets to certain minimum standard of cleanliness with modern facilities at partly their own cost (so that Govt saves money and need not waste through “con” tenders by local contractors etc) and also to MAINTAIN the toilets at a minimal fee. So we need to compensate it by allowing additional revenue streams to supplement and complement it. Media companies can pay rent to the toilet concession holder or go on revenue sharing.
14. If implemented properly, we can smartly assume that toilets will actually start looking bright and nice, clean and modern. Most importantly, toilets would be working and hygiene would have improved by 10 million percent!
15. To be a developed country, Malaysia must also take into account little important things like this. God knows if this simple idea will work but i just want to tickle your mind and get everyone to start thinking outside the box. A progressive Malaysia moving forward must do away with stale old ways and start adopting creative “crazy” ideas that are practical and win-win. I am all for clean toilets. All those who agree please stand up!
shaik rizal
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I would like to suggest that 40% of the allocation for school toilets goes towards an educational programme – talks, seminars, workshops – on health, personal and public hygeine, use of toilets and cleaning practices – which will have a spiral or value added effect on education in general.
Facilitators of these activities should be teachers and parents who, beside being educated with the children, can be creative and innovative in designing programmes that are interesting and absorbing and ongoing.
There’s no point having state of the art toilets and other facilities in schools and other public places if the users are not trained in using and maintaining them.
Part of the problem in Malaysia is that the disparity between the rural/urban areas and their population is exactly this disparity in educational standards. Malay toilet practices are water based, Chinese are paper based etc etc. So Malaysian toilet facilities and theirdesigners must take all this into consideration – not just the $s and Sens involved.
I totally agree with you.
In reality it is the fault of some parents. They are very calculative and stingy. They will make a lot of noise even if the school or PTA want to collect only RM1 a month while they are spending hundreds of RM for cigarettes and other unnecessary stuff.
My kids’ school is on a refurbishment project for their toilets. While researching I discovered this resource from the U.K. that might be of interest to anyone dealing with toilets and schools, whether on a system wide or individual school basis.
Take a peek at http://www.bog-standard.org/