Stringent follow-up needed on health and safety in boarding schools

Health and safety form one important pillar in the running of institutions, especially schools. This is because students (children) come from different backgrounds with a whole plethora of vulnerabilities, both from within, such as illnesses or disabilities, and those triggered by the environment, such as allergies and reactions.

These are usually anticipated as schools, particularly boarding schools, which are the subject of this discourse, are required to handle the students' health and safety issues with great care.

While there are laws, guidelines, and standards, more thorough and frequent follow-up is needed to ensure that the crowds in these boarding schools do not live with potential health and safety time bombs. There are two channels of follow-up here, individual and collective.

It is inappropriate to run a school of hundreds or thousands of students and be unable to have an assured source/supply of clean and safe drinkable water and healthy and sufficient food.

There is a cliché that has gone around our society that school life has to be a hustle! While this is true in terms of studies and the formation of an individual character, we cannot and should not normalise substandard management practices which cause students pain, discomfort, diseases, and, in some cases, disabilities. Students’ life is human life, and thus the conditions the students live in should promote well-being and a sense of safety rightful for human living.

It is saddening when private boarding schools charge parents millions and have undesirable living conditions. What parents pay for is not only academics but also food, safety, water, decent accommodation, and emergency support for their children when needed.

In a nutshell, students should not be made victims of the circumstances at school. For example, if in that area there is no supply of clean water, the school has the responsibility to find alternatives and not expose students to the danger of getting diseases from the contaminated water. Or if it is always dusty at school because of a cement factory (for example), the school has to consider saving students from the health hazards that are a result of such.

In addition, the government needs to emphasise the efficiency of diagnosis processes in school clinics all over the country. On many occasions, school clinics stand in between the healing and escalation of problems, and in some cases, between the life and death of students.

It is scandalous for a student to almost lose his or her life due to undetected typhoid, which is diagnosed much later outside the school, especially when the school clinic has carried out similar checks unsuccessfully. Tests for such common diseases should be accessible and reliable to intervene with appropriate medical care on time.

Another matter of concern that many boarding students have raised in the course of consultation is regarding food and the entire preparation process. There should be a modality of knowing the quality of the food offered in boarding schools directly from students.

It is not a question of the menu, as that will be an unending debate on the part of the students. But rather regarding food safety measures in view of preventing contamination of the food and protecting the health of consumers. Compromises in these areas are incredibly and most times irreparably costly.

While schools tend to put pressure on the students in order to protect their ranking and names in terms of performance, that is not all that matters. Clear directives are needed to ensure that unwell students are allowed to get treatment outside the school, even if it means missing classes. As a popular saying goes, a healthy mind dwells in a healthy body.

Also, there should be policy-backed guidelines on the necessity of healthy rest for all students, and more especially for those who fall sick or have certain enduring conditions that require sensitive care. Teachers need to be trained, even just basically, on these issues to make them supportive and more empathetic adults in the school communities.

Together with health is the need for safety in these boarding schools. Safety goes beyond security from criminals and thieves. Safety here entails consciously studying and reducing possibilities of accidents, falls, fires, animal attacks, etc., which could be unintended but a result of the nature of the structures already there. Students should also not be exposed to dangers in the course of work or daily school life.

If care is not taken, these weaknesses will survive in the schools in our country and become the backdrop of normalcy in school life despite being unnecessarily inconvenient and life-threatening. For accountability, students need to be taught to report instances when at school their life is endangered or their genuine health and safety concerns are not considered.

This will help prevent unnecessary health emergencies, which could be easily addressed if the officials listen and if the school clinics and safety measures function appropriately and are managed by professionals who know what to do.

Shimbo Pastory is an advocate for positive social transformation. He writes from Manila, the Philippines. Email [email protected], WhatsApp: +639951661979.