BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO
HONIARA City Council’s (HCC) education authority has come under attack, being blamed for failing to regularly check its schools.
This observed failure by the HCC education authority (EA) has led to the rise in sanitation, unhygienic environment and health problems in HCC owned schools.
This was revealed by the Principal Education Officer (PEO) for Honiara City Council Education Authority (HCCEA) Mr Henson Cornelius yesterday at the Live and Learn WASH team, stakeholders and school managers workshop in Honiara.
Cornelius said if regular inspections had been done, WASH issues (sanitation and health issues) would not be a problem.
“We have failed to check out schools quarterly and so WASH became an immense issue in regards to the health of our students, teachers and parents as well.
“However, this issues is not only for us (HCC) to consider but it needs students, school managers and other stakeholders put our hands together in carrying out improvements on WASH facilities and keep them operational as per national standard (clean and accessible with water for drinking, hand washing soap supplies available and proper toilets with wise use of it,” said Cornelius.
HCC is working on a programme called the Whole School Inspection (WSI) which is set up to address seven areas including sanitation.
