IMPLEMENTATION OF WATER, SANITATION

AND HYGIENE (WASH) IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

PREPARED FOR:

PUBLIC SCHOOLS
(IN STO. DOMINGO)

PREPARED BY:

MARIA THERESA NICOLE R. TABUR

Republic of the Philippines

COMMISSION ON AUDIT
Department of Education
Division of Ilocos Sur, Sto. Domingo Ilocos Sur
IMPLEMENTATION OF WATER, SANITATION AND
HYGIENE (WASH) IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

A CITIZEN PARTICIPATORY AUDIT

PROJECT BACKGROUND
After family homes, schools are considered as important places for children where they spend
long hours learning. Schools become risky of hygiene-related diseases causing harm to children,
if water is inadequate or have inferior quality, if water and sanitation (WATSAN) facilities are
inadequate or badly maintained and if children in schools lack oral health care and hygiene
education and training.

To respond to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in public schools, the Philippine
Government has developed several WASH programs and policies through the years and
identified the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Health (DOH) and Department
of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) as the three leading government agencies responsible
for the implementation of the following school WASH policies, programs, activities and
projects:

 DOH, in line with its function, promotes the preservation of the health of the people and
raises the health standards in schools through the issuance of the Implementing Rules
and Regulations (IRR) of Chapter VI - School Sanitation and Health Services of the
Code on Sanitation of the Philippines (PD No. 856) approved on April 28, 1998. It
specifies the rules and regulations on school sanitation and health services, sanitary
facilities requirements which include: toilet room requirement for pupils/students, water
supply, care and maintenance of facilities.

 In 2019, the DOH formulated the Guidelines in the Implementation of Oral Health
Program for Public Health Services (AO 2019-0019). The program aims to reduce the
prevalence rate of dental caries to 85 percent and periodontal disease by to 60 percent by
the end of 2020. The program seeks to achieve these objectives by providing preventive,
curative, and promotive dental health care to Filipinos through a lifecycle approach. This
approach provides a continuum of quality care by establishing a package of essential
basic oral health care (BOHC) for every lifecycle stage, starting from infancy to old age.
  DepEd’s Universal Medical/Dental Check-Up Program dated March 30, 2019 intends to
address two objectives: (1) Highlight the importance of good health among young
children in school: To provide each child with a medical/dental record from Grade 1
onwards; (2) Advocate the need for parental participation in establishing good health
among young children in school: The importance of health to good schooling.

 DepEd Memorandum No. 277 series of 2019 dated June 18, 2019, known as
“Strengthening the Expanded Universal Medical and Dental Check-Up in Schools,”
implements E-UMDC to underscore the need to promote good health and nutrition
among pupils/students.

 DepEd Order No. 56, series of 2019 dated June 4, 2019 was issued for “Immediate
Construction of Water and Hand Washing Facilities in All Schools for the Prevention of
the Influenza A (H1N1)”. All schools, regional and division offices are required to: (a)
assess the availability of water sources at school level and ensure availability of running
water and soap in schools; and (b) construct common hand washing facilities in schools
to be sourced from Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) or School
Based Repair and Maintenance Scheme (SBRMS) funds or from any available local
funds.

 DepEd Order No. 66, series of 2019 dated June 23, 2019 - Addendum to DepEd Order
No. 56, series of 2019 identifies the three designs of lavatory counters to wit: (a)
Standard Hand Washing Counter with 10 units of faucets; (b) Type II-Hand Washing
Counter with 5 units of faucets; (b) Type III-Hand Washing Counter for schools without
existing running water.

 DepEd Order No. 65, series of 2019 dated June 2, 2019 provides the guidelines for the
“Implementation of Essential Health Care Program (EHCP) for the School Children”.
The program aims to improve the health of school children and improve their academic
performance through combining the three evidence–based preventive interventions,
namely:

(a) Daily handwashing with soap;

(b) Daily tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste; and
(c) Bi-annual deworming.
Regional Directors and School Division Superintendents of DepEd are advised to link with Local
Government Units (LGUs) and jointly participate in the planning while the regional/division
health and nutrition personnel and Adopt – A-School Program (ASP) coordinators are tasked to
monitor the program and orient school principals and teachers for proper
supervision/implementation of the daily handwashing with soap and tooth brushing with fluoride
toothpaste. Moreover, Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs) are encouraged to establish
handwashing / tooth brushing facilities, toothbrush holders and other improvements of the
schools.

 DepEd Order No. 61, series of 2019 dated August 5, 2019 prescribes the “Use of the
Monitoring Tool for Essential Health Care Program”. The DepEd together with United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Fit for School (FIT) have developed EHCP
Monitoring and Evaluation System to strengthen the school-based management EHCP
and assess properly the program coverage by utilizing a Monitoring Form with an Action
Plan and On-line Monitoring System (OMS) as the necessary tools.

 DepEd Order No. 94 series of 2019 dated November 29, 2019 provides the “Guidelines
on the Implementation of the Basic Educational Facilities Funds (BEFF)”. The DepEd
Order includes, among others, the guidelines on the implementation of water and
sanitation facilities to be funded under the DepEd BEFF. It indicates the standard
designs available for toilets and hand washing facilities, considerations in constructing
water facilities and sewage disposals of schools.

 DBM-DepEd-DPWH Joint Circular No. 2019-1 dated April 18, 2019 prescribes the
guidelines relative to the Implementation of the Special Provision (SP) No. 4 of the
DPWH for the Basic Educational Facilities of the DepEd.

 DepEd Order No. 24, series of 2019 covers the “Guidelines on the Implementation of
Bottom-Up-Budgeting (BUB) projects” which includes, among others, the construction
of water and sanitation (WatSan) facilities of Fiscal Year (FY) 2019.

 DepEd Order No. 45, series of 2019, “Guidelines on School Based Management (SBM)
Grants for FY 2019,” identifies Eligible Activities and Expenditures including, among
others, the provisions of personal hygiene, first aide, deworming and medicine.
  DepEd Order No. 87, series of 2019, “Approved School Building Projects under
Calendar Years (CY) 2019 and 2020 Basic Educational Facilities Fund (BEFF)”, lists
down the following construction projects under CY 2019 and 2020 BEFF which will be
implemented by the DPWH:

a. BEFF 2019 construction of new classrooms with water and sanitation facilities;
b. BEFF 2019 construction of new classrooms with water and sanitation facilities;
c. BEFF 2019 construction of technical and vocational workshop buildings for Senior High
Schools.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The CPA on DepEd’s implementation of WASH Programs has the following objectives:

1.To validate the purpose/function and physical existence/conditions of the water and sanitation
facilities constructed within the five selected public schools in Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur.

2. To determine if there are adequate separate toilets for boys and girls; for students and
teachers/non-teaching personnel;

3. To determine if there are toilets designed and provided for persons with disabilities;

4. To determine/validate whether the programs implementation is effective and efficient to

guarantee:

 Adequate, sufficient, clean, suitable facilities for the students

 Adequate and safe water supply
 Adequate supply of soap, tooth brush and fluoride tooth paste
 Proper Hygiene training and practices - Tooth brushing - Hand washing
 Oral/ Dental Health Care Services

5. To validate whether concerned officials of the leading agencies, such as: DepEd, DPWH, and
LGU, which are responsible for safeguarding sanitation in schools, have become more pro-active
in implementing and monitoring sanitation policies in the public schools; and

6. To ascertain that hand washing facility projects of DPWH are properly turned-over to and
accepted by concerned School Principals and concerned DepEd Officials.

PROJECT METHODOLOGY
The Audit Teams identified their audit scope and adopted their audit methodologies, as follows:
1. Understanding the WASH Program through gathering and understanding of rules, regulations,
standards, policies and necessary reports related to WASH, such as:

 Philippine Government’s programs, standards and policies related to WASH

 Status Report of Constructed Water and Sanitation Facilities (DPWH Implemented)
prepared by DepEd Division Physical Facility Coordinator and Engineer
 Status Report of Water Tanks and Hand Washing Facilities (DepEd Implemented)
prepared by DepEd Division Physical Facility Coordinator and Engineer
 Report on School’s Operating Budget
 DepEd Division’s Budget and Financial Accountability Report
 List of laboratories accredited by DOH for Drinking Water Analysis

2. Identifying and selecting the WASH Program recipients;

3. Inviting, selecting and engaging CSOs interested to participate as partners of COA;

4. Conducting Exploratory Meeting and Capacity Building Workshop participated by COA and
partner CSOs for agreements on:

 Focus audit area

 Methodology (use of sampling, survey questions and citizens report cards)
 Audit Plan (planning, execution and communication and reporting)
 Audit Program (audit objectives, procedures, timelines and tasking)
 Survey Plan o Survey questionnaires (SQ) and citizens report cards (CRC) formulated
and simulated/tested o Sampling method adopted and selection of sample schools and
respondents
 BUDGETARY REQUIREMENT
This indicates the financial requirement of the project together with the activities that
will be implemented soon.

Activities Time Location Source Budget Indicator of

Table Amount Performance
Capability
Building
Adequate, January DepEd P50,100.00 Community
sufficient, clean, Leaders trained
suitable
facilities for the
students
January
Adequate and All Public DepEd P20,800.00 Community
safe water Leaders trained
supply Schools
March- DepEd P100,000.0 Supplies
Sto.
Adequate July 0 delivered &
supply of soap, Domingo visual aides
tooth brush and printed
Ilocos sur
fluoride tooth
paste
March DepEd Community Leaders
Proper Hygiene P25,687.25 trained
training and
practices -
Tooth brushing
- Hand washing
February- DepEd
Assigned
Oral/ Dental July P100,068.6
Professional Dentists
Health Care 6
Services

TOTAL: P296,655
 MARIA THERESA NICOLE R. TABUR
Lussoc, Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur
Mobile No.: 0906-066-7632
E-mail Address: taburmariatheresa678@gmail.com
PERSONAL INFORMATION

Age: 16
Birthday: September 13, 2002
Status: Single
Religion: Roman Catholic
Nationality: Filipino
Height: 145cm
Weight : 41kg
Father’s Name: Franklin T. Tabur
Occupation: OFW
Mother’s Name: Josseveb Tabur
Occupation: Housewife