Integrating early childhood development into primary school education system in Zimbabwe. Implications to WASH delivery in Zvishavane District Schools.

Schools are places where students actively stay most of their time during the day, and therefore for healthy and conducive learning environment, children need safe water for drinking and hand washing, and safe and friendly-to-use sanitation facilities. The introduction of ECD in Primary Education resulted in a rapid increase in the number of children in primary schools. It is from this background that the study seeks to explore the implications of integrating ECD into Primary school on WASH delivery in Zvishavane District. Interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and questionnaires were used to collect relevant data from 30 rural schools. A desk review of journal articles, books, and conference proceedings, published and unpublished reports from internet sources relevant to the study provided secondary data.

It was discovered that the ratios of pupil to squat hole were very high in some schools. The proportion of non-functioning sanitary facilities was too high and hence worsening the pupil squat-hole ratio. The study revealed that the frequency of cleaning WASH facilities in most schools was less than three times a day. The study shows ECD students were not being accompanied when using WASH facilities because of outnumbered staff. The source of water in two thirds of the schools was a borehole with a hand pump and some schools had a piped water supply. In most of the schools, the water was being shared with the community, another school or a clinic. This has a bearing on the maintenance and access to adequate water to the school. Whilst in most of the schools the water source was functional, the number of schools with non-functional water points was high. Only a third of the schools provided anal cleansing materials and old exercise books and newspapers were being administered to two thirds of the schools being monitored.

Background

Due to the laxity in policies governing registration, most of the centres operated with inappropriate and inadequate sanitary facilities thereby compromising the delivery of WASH services. A commission of enquiry conducted into education in 1999 by Nziramasanga found that many children in rural and poor communities did not have access to early childhood services. Most of primary schools did not have developed infrastructure to cater for ECD pupils’ enrolment when the government Of Zimbabwe proclaimed that all schools must have an ECD facility. According to UNICEF (2010), more than half of schools in developing countries lack access to safe drinking water and two thirds lack access to sanitation facilities. This militates against learning and child development as adequate and safe water supply and sanitation provisions are imperative to the general health and well-being of pupils. Zvishavane District has only 60% of households accessing portable water and only 52% have latrines (some still poorly ventilated), (MoE, 2012). These statistics points to potential dangers to school going ECD children while both at school and at home and could indicate even worse situation in the schools because the community as key stakeholders in the development of facilities in schools maybe seen not to prioritize WASH.

Objectives

• To assess the impact of integrating the ECD in primary schools to WASH facilities.
• To explore the availability of school WASH facilities for the ECD learners in Zvishavane district
• To explore the accessibility of School WASH facilities for the ECD learners in Zvishavane District in addressing challenges in School WASH programs

Methods and Materials

The research used case study research design and adopted a qualitative research strategy to investigate the current status of water supply and the sanitation in primary schools in Zvishavane District and to suggest possible solutions to WASH challenges in rural primary schools.
Sampling
Study conducted in Zvishavane District with a focus on primary schools in wards 30. A non-probability sampling technique was used to select the sample of participants. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select teachers, school heads and female learners to participate in the study from the four wards in Zvishavane.
Data Collection Techniques
Focus Group Discussions
Four focus group discussions were conducted with a total of approximately 32 to 40 pupils. Each FGD had about 8 – 10 participants, participants either being approached directly by researcher with the school authorities assistance or take the consent forms home to be completed by the guardian/parent and a convenient sampling method was used to select participants from the community based on their interest and willingness to participate in the study. This method helped researcher to explore research problem in greater depth, while providing consensus and diversity in participants’ knowledge, experiences and perceptions that cannot necessarily be elicited from individual interviews.
Key Informant Interviews
Eight in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers and school heads as Key Informants. These key informants were purposively selected for face to face in-depth interviews and referrals for specific teachers at each school were made by the school head.

Results Analyses and Discussion

Toilet space allocation
In 67% of the schools, the pupil to squat-hole ratio exceeded the recommended standard of 25 pupils to a squat hole. The ratio of pupils to a squat-hole/seat for girls ranged from 1 to 30 girls per squat-hole, with an average of 27 girls per squat hole. For boys the ratio of a male pupil to a squat-hole/seat was found to be at an average of 27 boys per squat-hole and at all the schools, there were no toilet facilities that were age appropriate. High ratio can lead to overuse of sanitation facilities making it difficult for them to be kept clean which has a bearing on the health and safety of the users. The facilities are also likely to fill up faster than their designated design life of 15 years forcing schools to incur costs in either de-sludging the septic tanks or constructing new ones due to insurmountable jamming. This effect has more negative impacts on the girl child than the boy child as the girl child requires more privacy. To some schools where the ratios are very high, some pupils are being forced to do open defecation and this has a consequence of forcing students to not relieve themselves in fear of being humiliated and without relieving yourself focus and attention in class is reduced and is only fidgeting. In most of the schools the ECD students do share toilets facilities with the upper grades and due to under staffing within schools, teachers cannot monitor the cleanliness of the toilets.
Toilet cleaning in 70% of the schools was just once a day and irregular in 30% of the schools and the cleaning was being done by the students. None of the schools had shower facilities for the girls.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Schools in Zvishavane have large enrolments and a huge deficit in sanitary facilities. There is a challenge in the provision of anal cleansing material and sanitary ware in the schools. While it is appreciated the School Development Committees are under immense financial pressure, the issue of procuring anal cleansing material for use by pupils needs to be attended to urgently. The lack of proper anal cleansing materials can force pupils to use small pieces of paper and during the process can lead to their hands getting soiled. There is need of ‘stand-alone’ curricula for WASH and reproductive health. The researcher recommends for a comprehensive and well planned advocacy campaign to be launched bringing plight of the schools in Zvishavane District to the attention of the authorities and other stakeholders. Each school should have its own source of water and sharing of water resources should be avoided to prevent problems with operation and maintenance of water resources.

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