For me, the test of a good office is how clean its toilets are.
– Sudha Murty, Indian educator and author
First impressions, it is said, are everything. And to me, the washrooms – whether in restaurants, coffeeshops, hotels, government offices, business premises or schools – are very important as the cleanliness of toilets will determine the success of a business.
Ever wondered what the top criteria is when it comes to customer satisfaction? Don’t be surprised it’s ‘cleanliness’. No, I am not making it up. According to mytraining.global, an international cleaning company, cleanliness ranks higher than value for money, quality and even customer service.
The firm said toilet cleanliness is an important area to look into, quoting findings of a survey which found 94 per cent of people would avoid a business if their toilets are dirty. When customers enter dirty washrooms, chances are they might puke and be put off, and the contract might not go through.
So much for clean toilets in business premises and government offices. What about school toilets, some of which or perhaps many of them, are stinky and filthy? According to media reports, toilets in more than 10,000 schools are in dire need of attention.
National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Fouzi Singon has highlighted the conditions of these school toilets on numerous occasions. He laments that most of the toilets are in a sorry state because the contractors appointed for maintenance by the school management are not competent and responsible.
The union has claimed that the cleaners do not do a proper job. Compounding the problem is the fact that contractors cut back on detergents; also, most of the cleaning liquids are said to be of poor quality, resulting in shoddy jobs.
Even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was annoyed about the wet, stinky and filthy schools toilets which he described as a perennial problem.
On July 3, when officiating at a food court in Kuala Lumpur, Anwar who once held the education portfolio from 1986 to 1991, said he prioritised toilet cleanliness, even instructing teachers to get students to clean the school toilets.
I think Anwar’s method of instilling humility in the young by getting students to clean the toilets is a great move.
The Prime Minister noted that many rich children had no respect for the daily hardships the lower income groups had to face.
“Kids must be taught to clean toilets to learn what humility and good values are about. They will appreciate the work their moms or public lavatory workers do, they will know the difficulties.
“This was practised during my time when I was the minister of education. Even then I faced resistance from an upper class professional family who wrote to me protesting their kids cleaning toilets. They said their kids were in school to study, not clean toilets.
“See the mentality? Education is about respecting people, even those cleaning toilets. If our kids are taught this then they will learn to appreciate people and the hard work they do. And for those kids who don’t want to comply with the rules, so be it; they will be barred from using the school toilets,” said Anwar.
The Prime Minister appears dead serious; Looks like Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek will have to instruct schools in the country to draw up a timetable to get students to take turns to clean their toilets. Hopefully, Sarawak schools will not be left out of the ‘toilet cleaning programme’. There shouldn’t be an exception.
Anwar also revealed that he had instructed the Education Ministry to check the “condition of the many school toilets that were damaged, and for decades nobody cared”.
I agree that humility can be instilled in children by teaching them to clean toilets.
Schools in Japan get their students to clean their own toilets. It is part of the school education where students as young as first graders clean and maintain the toilets. Of course it is not a Japanese government mandate, but all schools in that country adopt this policy.
I don’t see why we cannot inculcate this civic conscious value and collective responsibility so that our future generations appreciate the importance of cleanliness and the need to take care of public property.
Malaysian students can learn to appreciate what the common man does if they clean toilets at school. Nothing degrading about washing your school toilets.
As Anwar put it: “If our children are trained to clean toilets, they will know how their parents keep their home toilets clean. They will also appreciate street and public toilet cleaners and that there is value in every work done.”
Nevertheless, knowing how the Malaysian administrative system works, don’t expect things to be put in place immediately. It will be a long, long process. In the meantime, the Education Ministry has to do something about the toilet condition fast.
The lack of funds could mean that schools may have to get creative. Perhaps schools could impose a 10 sen fee for the use of their toilets that are equipped with good facilities. Money collected can be used to maintain toilets.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
