Introduction

Quality education can be achieved with basic drinking water during school

hours, basic sanitation facilities, and basic hand-washing facilities

(Moelyaningrum, 2023). School sanitation is the one of the most important

factors of quality education. It is a concern of the global community. The student’s

ability to learn is affected by the state and condition of the school’s sanitation.

The health and well-being of the students are partially determined by the status

of the school’s environment and that includes the sanitation of the comfort rooms.

One of the facilities that is highly observed for its sanitation is the comfort room.

According to the Department of Education (DepEd, 2021), Toilets are a very

important health facilities in every school; therefore, the condition of the comfort

rooms must always remain accessible and safe for the students to avoid

diseases. Based from the survey that the researchers conducted, 136 out of 208

Grade 12 students have encountered maintenance concerns from the comfort

rooms of Malinta National High School – Senior High School. The situation of the

comfort rooms is contradicting from the statement of the Department of

Education that raised concerns for some.

According to Dizon, et.al. (2020), prolonging the ambiance and cleanliness

of the comfort room can cause a positive effect that will help every user to feel

comfortable once they have to use it. One of the ways of preserving the decent

look and pleasant smell of the comfort rooms is by providing the materials that
can maintain the cleanliness of the comfort rooms and also by repairing the

comfort rooms that will guarantee the safety and security of the users.

Attaching posters within and outside the walls of the comfort rooms will

influence the students to clean the toilets after using it. Announcing in the

school’s social media platform is also a way of promoting cleanliness and

practicing proper hygiene (Magpusao, et.al., 2020).

For a numerous reasons, in spite of the placards and announcements

done by the school, maintaining the sanitation of the comfort rooms in Malinta

National High School – Senior High School has been difficult. The smell coming

out from the Comfort rooms are unpleasant, there are garbage everywhere, no

hand soap available, lack of resources, and etc. The researchers have found a

blank spot that they are aiming to find out if that is one of the reasons as to why

the students do not clean the toilets after using it. And that is because of the lack

of resources. Some of the Comfort rooms in Malinta NHS-SHS lacks materials

such as trash bins, dipper, water supply, hand soap, and so on. And because of

that it does not motivate the students to clean up because of the inadequate

number of resources.

According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, nearly one third

of schools around the world still lack basic water, sanitation, and hygiene

services. Having a proper sanitation facility will reduce risks to the students and

the people around them. Not only it affects their education but it also has an

impact on their health. Having an access to a fully sanitized facility is unlikely to

be available for everyone because of the socioeconomic status of each

community. It has been reported that at least 15 of 36 countries surveyed, at

least 10% of women and girls did not have a private place to wash and change at

home (WHO, 2017).

The Department of Education is aware that one of the urgent concerns

with regard to school facilities is the insufficient number of toilet facilities in the

schools. This requirement directly affects the teaching, learning situation as well

as the health condition of the school populace (Enclosure to DepEd

Memorandum Order No. 298, s. 2018) - Department of Education. As per the

survey that the researchers performed, 136 out of 208 Grade 12 students have

experienced lack of resources concerns from the comfort rooms of Malinta

National High School – Senior High School. That’s why in this study, the

researchers aims to know the perspective of the students on improving the

facility that has caused some problem in their health and quality education. The

research design that will be used is descriptive research design because it will

collect the detailed and factual information from the students who are bothered

by the condition in the sanitation of school comfort room.