ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND SANITATION IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN KONTAGORA TOWN

EXPLORING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL

Abstract

his study assessed the environment and sanitation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) primary schools in Kontagora town. A cluster sampling was used to select 50 participants. Three research questions and two hypotheses were addressed in the study. The techniques employed are the administration of questionnaire, interviews and non-participant observations. The instruments were validated and their reliability indices for the questionnaire and interview are 0.77and 0.68 while the observation’s inter-rater yielded 0.72. The data obtained were analysed using percentage and Chi-square. The research findings show that government’s commitment and the will to embrace school environment and sanitation services delivery was very slow; the school facility and environment was under poor safety condition, protection and maintenance; there was poor environment and school sanitation in almost all the schools sampled; government participation in renovating the school environment was rather slow; funding of the school facilities remained inadequate and often delayed; the schools also lacked adequate chairs and tables in their classrooms; the environment did not promote learning by the pupils and the pupils learning depended on good sanitation. These findings call for the need for sensitization and awareness at community level, school level and government level on the insufficient facilities infrastructure and sanitation matter. More and reliable funding and supervision of the various schools should be enforced to aid effective service delivery in the schools.