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KARACHI: WASH, a five-year strategy for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in schools, said to provide a roadmap for the Education and Literacy Department and partners working on education programmes, was launched by the Sindh Government in collaboration with Unicef Pakistan here on Monday.
According to Pakistan’s education statistics for 2015-16, one-third of public schools here lack bathroom facilities and clean drinking water. It has also been observed that children’s knowledge of health, hygiene and sanitation was low.
It is against this background that WASH seeks to improve access to adequate safe water and bathroom facilities while ensuring school-going children are educated on proper hygiene and sanitation by 2022.
It will also increase their school attendance while promoting health and hygiene,” said Sindh Minister for Education and Literacy Jam Mehtab Dahar at the launch.
Secretary for School Education and Literacy Department Abdul Aziz Uqaili also said that the Education and Literacy Department was committed to ensuring that all children in the province had access to good quality education, including those with special needs by providing a healthy, hygienic, safe and protective environment for them. “Ensuring access to safe drinking water, proper sanitation and hygiene facilities for school-going children is an integral part of this endeavour,” he said.