Tororo officials want schools closed over poor sanitation

Tororo municipal officials have asked the Ministry of Education to come to their rescue and temporally close up some of the primary schools in the municipality with poor sanitation facilities to avert possible disease outbreaks.

The officials cite, among others, pit-latrines in over 10 schools that have developed huge cracks yet they remain in use.

Rock View Primary is among the many schools in the municipality that are currently faced with poor sanitation facilities.

The school with over 1,800 pupils has got only four latrine stances, putting pupil to stance ratio at about 1:300 which is way above the national physical planning standards of 1:40.

Worse still, some of the latrines are almost collapsing. Two of the stances have developed deep cracks while the rest are almost filled up. But even with the current sorry state, the facilities haven't been abandoned.

Daniel Goloba, the school deputy headteacher, said they are handicapped since they hold no powers to close schools.

The situation has meant poor sanitation at the school, putting learners at risk of possible disease outbreak as learners opt to visit nearby pushes to help themselves.

Okoth Obbo, the district health officer, says the surrounding community and learners within the school risks being attacked by diarrhea or cholera.

The messy situation is not any different from other schools like St Kizito's primary. The school with a population of over 700 learners has got only two latrine blocks but all in sorry state.

One of the blocks was recently blown off by wind while the other has created a deep crack though under use.

Tororo municipal education officer Teddy Makola has asked the Ministry of Education to intervene by closing down the worst-hit schools to prevent looming disaster.

With the past bad experience of latrine blocks collapsing on learners, the municipal education officer is asking the ministry of education to intervene.