schools
Decoration and disco balls for better school toilets
View into a toilet area of the Hellweg Realschule in Unna-Massen. Photo
© Sascha Thelen/dpa
In many schools, the toilets are the place that people prefer to avoid. The German Toilet Organisation wants to change that with a competition and is awarding prizes for ideas for nicer school toilets.
Three schools from Munich, Unna (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Winsen an der Luhe (Lower Saxony) will be in Berlin for their newly designed toilets. In the “Toilets Make School” competition, the German Toilet Organisation (GTO) is also awarding seven special prizes, two of which will go to Berlin. According to coordinator Svenja Ksoll, 135 schools from 14 federal states took part. Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were not included.
According to Ksoll, school toilets are a hot spot in many places: the school buildings and therefore the sanitary facilities are often dilapidated. There is often a lack of soap and toilet paper. Vandalism, stench and a lack of privacy are also problems. In the competition, schools were asked to develop and implement ideas and concepts for permanently clean school toilets.
Toilet AG and free tampons
The three main prize winners are the primary school on Stielerstrasse in Munich, the Hellweg secondary school in Unna-Massen and the grammar school in Winsen an der Luhe. As part of the competition, toilet working groups were founded, 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. “Numerous toilet rooms were beautified with wall motifs, radio systems, disco lights, cell phone holders, doodle walls and dispensers for tampons and sanitary pads,” says Ksoll.
A total of 50,000 euros in prizes will be awarded. Special prize winners are the Uellendahl-Katernberg Comprehensive School in Wuppertal, the Laagberg School in Wolfsburg, the Jenaplan School in Weimar, the Rudolf Koch School in Offenbach, the Paul Simmel Primary School and the Scharmützelsee Primary School (both in Berlin) as well as the Gymnasium am Kurfürstlichen Schloss in Mainz.
A study on Berlin school toilets published by the GTO in August 2023 already showed that many students suffer from the condition, often avoid the place and sometimes eat and drink less during the school day.