Child Friendly Schools in Ysabel Province, Solomon Islands Need Attention to Tackle Water and Sanitation Issues
It was a warm day when we left Honiara to travel to Buala, Ysabel Province in the Solomon Islands. The trip starts with a 50 minute plane ride to Fera Island, where the PEO Education Ellison Mane was waiting to whisk us to Buala via a 12 foot boat. I kept a watch out for the legendary salt water crocodiles – to no avail. This was a short initial ride across to the main island where we were met by Wryne Bennett our Child Friendly Schools (CFS) coordinator, who in turn introduced us to others working in the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development (MEHRD)Buala office. Only a few weeks old in his position, Roy Bowen, Chief of Solomon Islands Field Office and I were accompanied by Wryne, Ellison, Issac (Boat driver) and Dorothy Bana (paralegal trainer and CFS steering committee member) as we paid our first visit to Bolitei Primary School. The schools in Ysabel Province are quite dispersed with a distance of around 20 minutes to an hour by boat between them. There are no jetties or boat ramps, you jump straight out of the boat onto the best landing spot – as judged by Isaac, our competent boatman, be it beach, a muddy track or a rough rocky shore. We were wet from morning to night, from the breakers and from the waves hitting against the sides of the boat, especially in open seas.
I was impressed with the seven schools we visited during the week even in terms of the sheer joy of the students who were attending, and by the fact that many of them had to brave long distances, travel by canoe or a four night stay in the informal dormitories or with extended family members in order to attend school. In many of the schools, staff and children were committed to making certain that the schools were perceived as ‘child friendly’ and that the space on offer was conducive to teaching and learning. While artwork and colorful pictures were on display in a majority of classrooms visited, I had a few concerns regarding the other pillars of child friendly schooling. Firstly Jejevo Primary School which had 490 enrolled children in 2007 (390 so far, 2008). Jejevo Primary which was one of the pioneers of CFS in Ysabel was a disappointment as it has been really rundown due to, I was told by the steering committee, poor management and leadership. In one classroom 25 children were seated on a wet floor, when they stood up to sing for us I could see the damp patches on their bottoms. Water was leaking in from the roof but rain was also sleeting in from the open windowless sides of the classrooms. The teacher who was teaching the class is herself a CFS trainer and teaches one other class because of staff shortage. The five and six year olds in this class sang for us at the top of their voices and with the most amazing harmony. We were touched. The infrastructural situation of this school is really poor and it is difficult to see how the government grant is being spent. In this school, as in one other school we visited - Sigana Primary, there was no fresh water for children, in Jejevo, children were buying fizzy drinks to quench their thirst, in Sigana children are encouraged to bring their own water. Of the seven visited schools, four had functioning water tanks but again water tanks service both school and community and the ratio of tank water available to head of school population needs to be urgently addressed. Some water tanks are old and need to be serviced. It seems essential that leadership education should play an important role in schools in Ysabel province. The teachers, headteachers, school management committees and their chairs and the community need to be playing their roles with transparency and obvious commitment. Leadership training and in-service teacher education for teachers in training and qualified teachers, along the lines of UNICEF’s child friendly schooling concept will help matters considerably in Ysabel. Secondly almost all seven schools visited had really poor toilet facilities. Sigana Primary had no toilets at all in a school of 175 and children go to the toilet in the mangrove swamp. This is of concern on an island where crocodiles are a known danger to humans and they lurk among the mangroves. Other schools had one or two toilets in school populations of 150 children or more. Although teachers and students tried hard to use hygienic practices such as handwashing in a basin or bowl, in some schools children were dipping their hands into the same bowl rather than having running water using a kettle/jug/small container. Children, communities and teachers need further support and training on both hand washing and sanitation. Out of all the schools visited only Tamahi Primary had adequate safe water facilities and the school management committee reported enough toilets. Finally in regards to the safety of boarding facilities of primary school children, in the Solomon Islands. In Bolitei Primary children as young as 5-7 years old are staying in these informal facilities and are cooking for themselves. It was not clear that adequate nutrition is considered carefully in menu planning and food preparation as it seemed that children were generally taking care of this themselves. There is some teacher supervision. There is only one tank for the school and the community to share. Supervision and registration of informal facilities is essential to keep children safe, protected and supervised. In many villages children are boarding with relatives and while this was acceptable in the past the Ysabel province CFS steering committee expressed concern about the safety and well being of children left with relatives during the week. There are no clear records on the number of children in informal boarding facilities in the Solomon Islands. It is essential that this data be reported back to MEHRD so that children who have to board can be better catered for. The nature of the geographic logistics meant that we could not visit all CFS schools but I was satisfied that the trends in the schools we visited were similar. I was also glad that the school chairmen who head the school management committees comprising staff, parents and communities expressed similar views about water and sanitation issues such as the lack of toilets and insufficient water tanks; lack of community involvement and the difficulty with bringing the community together for consultations. I was very impressed with the CFS Steering Committee and the Mothers Union as well as the Provincial Government representatives in Ysabel province who are convinced that children like to come and stay in schools because they are happy and protected in the school environment. The CFS Steering Committee comprises teachers, mothers union representatives, a police officer, a paralegal trainer, school management representatives and headteachers and a health ENT nurse. The PEO also attends meetings. The Steering committee is keen to support UNICEF’s programme and have been working very closely with Wrynne Bennett the UNICEF CFS coordinator in Buala. After four days in Buala, I returned to Honiara where I discussed water and sanitation issues and the possibility of collaborating in future with two health promotion officers in the Ministry of Health. I also presented a report to Mylyn Kuve, the Permanent Secretary of Education on the CFS schools and the way forward for consolidating and expanding the CFS concept through to 2009 and including training in pre and in-service teacher education programs. There is still much to be done. But with the schools working on self assessment of problems and issues and the writing and actioning of School Development Plans with UNICEF support in 2008, a much more focused approach to dealing with issues can be devised for each school, as each is unique in priority areas of need. Water and sanitation issues do need the most urgent attention in all schools, however. At the end of my visit, I felt the responsibility rested on us to accomplish as much as we can for the health, well-being and meaningful education of children in Buala. UNICEF Pacific: The evolution of early childhood and education programmes In the 1980s and 1990s, UNICEF focused mainly on early childhood education projects. In 2000, it moved towards supporting primary education, particularly in the area of quality learning in schools. The child-friendly schools (CFS) project is geared to improving the quality of school learning and improving partnerships in the education of children in the Pacific. The CFS project is running successfully in Vanuatu. The initiative started in the Solomon Islands in 2004 and Kiribati has expressed an interest in the child-friendly approach. In 2003, UNICEF opened field offices in three priority countries: Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Kiribati. This has made follow-up and monitoring of education and health projects in the field easier, although operational costs in rural provinces are high.
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