The purpose of this study was to make a critical evaluation of the school plant of Union Grove High School in Upshur County, Texas, in regards to health and safety environment.

Providing adequate sanitation facilities for the poor remains one of the major challenges in all developing countries. In South Africa, an estimated 11,7% of the schools are without sanitation. The South African government has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that all South Africans have access to adequate sanitation. When sanitation systems fail, or are inadequate, the impact of the health of the community, on the health of others and the negative impact on the environment can be extremely serious. In rural South African schools, many Enviro-Ioo toilets are available today. They are designed to suit a variety of water scarce areas and where there is a high risk of contamination of ground water resources. It is important to realize that any Enviro-Ioo system programme requires an education programme to ensure that the principles of use and maintenance are clearly understood by the user group. Their maintenance requires more responsibility and commitment by users. This study is an interpretive case study that indicates how sanitation in a rural Ramashobohle High School in Polokwane municipality was managed through an EcoSchools Sanitation Community of Practice, and how this developed action competence for sanitation management in the school. The study established that the earlier practice and knowledge of the Ramashobohle Eco-Schools community of practice exercised in maintaining Enviro-Ioo systems was inadequate; unhealthy and unsafe according to the data generated through focus group interviews, observations, interviews, action plan, workshops and reflection interviews. The data generated also indicates that the Eco-Schools community of practice was not committed to maintaining sanitation in their school because they were not sharing sanitation knowledge; they were not communicating and not updating one another concerning Enviro-Ioo systems maintenance as they had no adequate knowledge as to how to maintain the facilities; and the school management was also not supportive and was not taking responsibility. The study shows how this situation was turned around as an Eco-Schools Sanitation Community of Practice focussed on developing action competence in the school community. It provides a case based example of how knowledge and action competence, supported by an Eco-Schools Community of Practice, can find and implement solutions to inadequate sanitation management practices in rural schools, and shows how members of the school community can be engaged in learning how to manage and maintain school sanitation systems through a participatory process that develops action competence. The study points to important dimensions of developing action competence, such as providing knowledge and demonstrations, inviting experts to the school, involving learners in observations and monitoring and in ensuring that adequate facilities are available. In particular, a workshop conducted by Enviro-Ioo consultants, organised and supported by the Eco-Schools Sanitation COP, together with a follow up action plan, provided the main impetus for changes in practice in the school and served to support action competence development. Finally the study provides research findings and recommendations for further research.

Thesis (M.Dev. (Planning and Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The purpose of this study was to explore the role of SMTs in providing and sustaining schools’ sanitation infrastructure. Qualitative research approach was conducted to determine if the SMT members fully understand the role that they can play in sustaining sanitation facilities in their schools. Primary data was collected using semi structured questionnaires using qualitative research method. Twenty SMT members from five sampled schools from Man’ombe Circuit in Mopani East Education District were used as respondents. The study highlighted that provision of sanitation infrastructure which is not accompanied by effective management of those infrastructure cannot be sustained. Management was selected as a theoretical framework to clearly state the duties of SMT members as managers in the school community they are based in. Areas of potential effective role performance and areas of potential role conflict in school sanitation infrastructure were highlighted. The findings revealed that SMTs do not fully understand their role when it comes to school sanitation.

Η πραγματοποίηση αυτής της μελέτης έγινε με σκοπό να διερευνήσει τις θεσμικές ρυθμίσεις, τις διαδικασίες και τους τρόπους με τους οποίους σχεδιάσθηκε, συγκροτήθηκε, οργανώθηκε και ασκήθηκε η εκπαιδευτική πολιτική για την Σχολική Υγιεινή στη χώρα μας κατά την περίοδο 1911 - 1949. Η εργασία εστιάζεται στη συγκέντρωση, αξιολόγηση και θεματολογική ταξινόμηση του πρωτογενούς υλικού με την μέθοδο της ιστορικής έρευνας (ιστορικοσυγκριτική ανάλυση: Καζαμίας, 2002) με στόχο την κατανόηση με φαντασία (Carr, 1983) και την ερμηνεία των ιστορικών τεκμηρίων (ιστορική ερμηνευτική προσέγγιση: Πυργιωτάκης, Ι. & Παπαδάκης, Ν., 1998). Με την ενδελεχή διερεύνηση των ιστορικών μας τεκμηρίων επιχειρούμε την ανασύνθεση της ιστορικής πραγματικότητας, αλλά και την ανάλυση και ερμηνεία των γεγονότων σε μια χρονική περίοδο (1911-1949) που καλύπτει την περίοδο, όπου παρατηρούνται οι σημαντικότερες πολιτικές κοινωνικής πρόνοιας και αντίληψης στο χώρο της σχολικής υγιεινής. Η δική μας, επομένως προσέγγιση δεν είναι γεγονοτογραφική (Δημαράς, 1988), δε μένει στο τι έγινε αλλά επιχειρεί και απαντήσεις στα γιατί; Ερμηνεύει (ερμηνεύουσα ιστορία: Δερτιλής, 1995) στηριγμένη σε θεωρητικές προσεγγίσεις περί Κράτους Πρόνοιας και Νέας Αγωγής. Χρησιμοποιώντας την ποιοτική ανάλυση περιεχομένου (Berelson, 1952), εξετάσαμε τις διαφοροποιήσεις που υπήρξαν για τη θεσμική εξέλιξή της στις χρονικές περιόδους – τομές και για τις εξής παραμέτρους – κατηγορίες ανάλυσης: την υγιεινή των διδακτηρίων, του μαθητή, των διδασκόντων, την σχολιατρική υπηρεσία και τον σχολιατρικό έλεγχο, τα μέτρα σχολικής μέριμνας που ελήφθησαν από το κράτος με ιδιαίτερες αναφορές στα μαθητικά – σχολικά συσσίτια καθώς και στην δημιουργία θεσμών ευρύτερης κοινωνικής αντίληψης όπως: οι παιδικές εξοχές – μαθητικές κατασκηνώσεις, τα υπαίθρια σχολεία, τα σχολικά λουτρά, τα μαθητικά ιατρεία – σχολικές κλινικές και τα κέντρα μαθητικής αντίληψης. Επίσης, τη διδασκαλία του μαθήματος της υγιεινής και τέλος, την εκλαΐκευση και τα περιοδικά σχολικής υγιεινής, ξεκινώντας από τις δύο βενιζελικές περιόδους, προχωρώντας στη μεταξική περίοδο και συνεχίζοντας στη μεταπολεμική περίοδο μέχρι και το 1949. Ιστορικοί, πολιτικοί, οικονομικοί, επιστημονικοί και γεωγραφικοί παράγοντες επηρέαζαν την υγεία των παιδιών, η οποία ήταν συνυφασμένη με τις πολιτισμικές και κοινωνικές συνθήκες και τους όρους διαβίωσης κάθε κοινωνικής ομάδας ή ατόμου σε κάθε εποχή στην χώρας μας. Εν κατακλείδι, η πρόβλεψη υπηρεσιών υγιεινής για τα παιδιά της σχολικής ηλικίας, σύμφωνα και με τις επιστημονικές επιταγές, κατείχε υψηλή προτεραιότητα στα προγράμματα υγειονομικής και κοινωνικής πολιτικής του κράτους, χαρακτηριζόμενη όμως, συχνά, από μια αναντιστοιχία των νομοθετημάτων με την πορεία υλοποίησης και εφαρμογής τους. Ως αιτίες αυτών των αναντιστοιχιών, πέραν των εσωτερικών πολιτικών αντιφάσεων, μπορούν να εντοπισθούν η πολιτική ρευστότητα της εποχής και η οικονομική δυσπραγία όσον αφορά στα δημοσιονομικά μεγέθη του Ελληνικού δημοσίου / The purpose of this study is to investigate the institutional regulations, processes and modes of planning, formation, organization and making education policy for the school sanitation and hygiene in Greece during the period 1911-1949. The study focuses on the collection, evaluation and thematic classification of the primary sources with the method of historical research (comparative-historical analysis: Kazamias, 2002) in order to comprehend with imagination (Carr, 1983) and to interpret the historical presumptions (an interpretive-historical approach: Pyrgiotakis, I. & Papadakis, N. 1998). Through the detailed research of our historical documents, we are attempting not only to recompose the historical reality but also to analyse and to interpret the facts during the period 1911-1949, a period characterized by the most important welfare state policies in the area of the school sanitation and hygiene. Thus, our approach is not a fact-based approach (Dimaras, 1988), it does not confine itself to what happened but it also attempts to provide answers to “why”. It interprets (interpreting history: Dertilis, 1995), based on welfare state and new education theoretical approaches. Using the qualitative content analysis (Berelson, 1952), we examined the differentiations of the institutional progress in the periods-sections and for the following parameters-analysis categories: school sanitation, students’ hygiene, teachers’ hygiene, medical and health service/control in school, medicare and perception measures in schools on behalf of the state (with special references to school lunch mess and to the creation of wider social perception institutions like: childhood countries-student camps, outdoor schools, student baths, student health centers-student clinics and the centers of student perception), hygiene education, popularization and the school hygiene magazines, from the two “venizelians” periods, the metaxian and the post war period to 1949. Historical, political, financial, scientific and geographical factors were affecting the children’s health, connected to the cultural and social conditions and the living conditions of every social group or individual during all epochs of our country. In conclusion, the health services for school age children were having a big priority in sanitation and social policy programs, characterised although quite often by discrepancy between laws and their implementation. This is due not only to the internal political contradictions but also to the political fluidity of that era and to the economic recession related to the greek state financial sizes.