Eradication of all pit toilets in schools, ECD centres 'needs full audit'
Amnesty SA and Section27 have welcomed progress in replacing pit toilets but are calling for a nationwide audit to identify all remaining unsafe sanitation facilities in schools and ECD centres.
Amnesty SA has urged the government to audit all schools and ECD centres and eliminate remaining pit toilets to protect pupils’ rights and safety.
It says more needs to be done to eradicate pit toilets in all schools and Early Childhood Development centres.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube announced this week that all the 3,372 schools identified under the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) initiative have received safe sanitation facilities.
Amnesty SA's Genevieve Quintal says while they welcome the development, many schools still using pit toilets have not been accounted for.
She says the department must conduct an updated audit of all schools still using unsafe toilets.
"Which includes those that were not part of the SAFE initiative, and include Early Childhood Development centres. It must then outline how it plans to eradicate all remaining pit toilets in schools and ECD centres with clear timelines. The presence of pit toilets in schools violates learners' rights to health, sanitation, education, dignity, and in some cases, life.”
Meanwhile, education rights group Section27 says the completion of the Sanitation Appropriate for Education initiative should mark the next phase in eliminating pit toilets from South African schools.
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The organisation is calling for a comprehensive national audit to identify any remaining unsafe sanitation facilities.
It believes the completion of the government's 2018 school sanitation programme should mark the beginning of efforts to eradicate pit toilets.
Section27 has been campaigning for safe school sanitation since five-year-old Michael Komape drowned in a pit toilet in Limpopo in 2014.
The organisation's Pearl Nicodemus says the next priority must be a comprehensive national audit to ensure no learners are exposed to unsafe toilets in schools.
"We need to have accurate data so that we are able to establish how far. We welcome the progress, but we wouldn't also want to sort of overestimate the progress because one learner or one school left out of the count means that there are hundreds of learners who are in danger."
She says the department should ensure that it has an audit that includes all schools.
"Particularly in rural schools, so that we're able to truly establish and we get to a place where we no longer get reports of a child who died in a pit toilet."
