hygiene
Schools honored for clean toilets
View into a toilet area of the Hellweg Realschule in Unna-Massen. Photo
© Sascha Thelen/dpa
Unless you absolutely have to, you usually avoid them: school toilets. They are considered neglected. Students and teachers across the country are changing that and transforming the toilets into award-winning places.
According to coordinator Svenja Ksoll, 135 schools with more than 76,000 students from 14 federal states took part with concepts for their toilets. Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were not included. The German Association of Cities wants to spread ideas from the competition.
Depressing mood in the school toilet
Eighth-grader Hendrik Simon and his Hellweg Realschule in Unna-Massen are among the main prize winners. The school toilet there is now a real oasis of well-being – with disco balls, plants, air fresheners, coat hooks, cell phone holders, plenty of toilet paper, soap and light. Things were very different before the redesign: “There was urine on the floor, which made it sticky and smelled very bad. The toilet was very dark and many toilet lids had been destroyed by vandalism. There was a very depressing atmosphere,” remembers the 14-year-old student, who avoided going to the toilet at school for years. “It wasn’t nice to sit in class with such an urgent feeling.”
The topic was then discussed in the student council. “We decided that things could not continue like this and that we wanted to change something,” says Simon. It was particularly positive that the students’ ideas were incorporated into the redesign and that the decision was not made from above. The school received 4,000 euros in cash and non-cash prizes worth 10,000 euros. Other main prize winners are the primary school on Stielerstrasse in Munich and the Gymnasium Winsen an der Luhe.
School toilets next to bullying and food main topic
According to Svenja Ksoll, school toilets are a hot spot in many places: the school buildings and the sanitary facilities are often dilapidated. There is often a lack of soap and toilet paper. Vandalism, stench or a lack of privacy are other problems. “No one talks about it, it is neglected, it doesn’t matter, it’s just annoying. Many teachers and school administrators tell us: it’s such a stupid issue, we can’t get it under control anyway and we just give up.” But the toilets are one of the main issues for students, along with school meals and bullying, says Ksoll.
A study on Berlin school toilets published by the GTO in August 2023 showed, for example, that many students suffer from the condition, often avoid the place and sometimes eat and drink less during the school day. However, there is a lot that can be done to improve the situation, says Ksoll. The GTO says it wants to protect the environment, health, education and human dignity worldwide by improving sanitation.
Urinals with football goals, puzzles and jokes on whiteboards
As part of the competition, toilet working groups were set up, checklists and reporting chains were developed to quickly eliminate deficiencies, and new offers were introduced, such as the free distribution of menstrual products by the school. There are evaluation systems, such as traffic light systems. Training is offered for first-graders, for example on the topic of “How does the flush work?” and the topic of hygiene has sometimes been included in lessons. The decoration in some toilets also includes boards with messages, jokes and riddles, and some urinals have been equipped with soccer goals that the children have to hit.
In Berlin, pupils at the Paul Simmel elementary school – the Clean Heroes – recorded their own song and made a video. The group takes care of the toilets, signs agreements with the classes for more cleanliness and supports the caretaker in her work. “The toilet used to be very dirty and it wasn’t flushed,” says Clean Hero Teym Ouercheffani. The project has inspired and captivated many pupils, reports initiator and educator Sascha Suden: “The dynamic was great.” The Berliners received a special prize for their project.
According to Ksoll, even schools that are not among the prize winners have noticed a significant improvement in the situation: “That is exactly what the competition aimed to achieve – to have an impact.” It is about long-term solutions for clean school toilets.
The German Association of Cities also supports the idea. “It is important to us that cities get involved in the issue of toilets. We have 200 member cities with thousands of schools,” says Hilmar von Lojewski, head of the Department of Urban Development, Construction, Housing and Transport. “Our job is to spread the word about this issue and to make it clear that there are solutions to seemingly deadlocked situations,” says von Lojewski. “It is a basic right for every child, every man and every woman to have a good toilet visit.”