The Minimum Requirement Guidelines on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Schools (WinS), developed by the School Health Department (SHD) of the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) were endorsed by the Minister in November 2016.
The guidelines were developed to assist Cambodian schools in upgrading their school environment and management, ensuring that the school’s water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) situation meet the basic demands of Cambodian students in order to reduce infectious disease rates, especially diarrhea and respiratory infections, as well as reducing malnutrition. The guidelines can be found HERE.
The success in implementing the Minimum Requirement Guidelines for WASH improvements is dependent upon a detailed understanding of the objective and contents of the guidelines, especially that of school principals and teachers. However, experiences from orientations, field testing and the baseline collection suggests that many school principals are not yet fully familiar with the contents of the MR Guidelines and how to use the monitoring tools.
Therefore, to support the training of sub-national education officers, school principals and teachers, Fit for School supported the development of a video series on the Minimum Requirement Guidelines for WinS to complement the main guidance document. The videos consist of an introduction by the Minister of Education, Youth and Sport on the concept and objective of the MR Guidelines on WinS, and there are separate videos with concrete recommendations on the different categories such as drinking water, latrines and urinals, handwashing facilities, and the school environment and safety. Another video is dedicated to the monitoring and evaluation process to help educators understand how to use the tools and report on their school´s WASH status. You can access the MR videos on the Fit for School Youtube Channel HERE.
Beginning in November 2018, all schools in Cambodia are required by MoEYS to conduct an annual self-assessment of the school’s WinS situation on the basis of the MR indicators and checklists, the results of which are then reported to the national level and will be monitored as part of the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2019-2023.