Hygiene Education at Schools

The indicator assesses the proportion and number of children who were taught by their teachers the essential hygiene-related practices and knowledge as a part of the standard school curriculum (i.e. not as a part of an externally-driven, one-off initiative).

There are two main options for gaining the required data:

> you can collect them from the school administration's records - this method is recommended if you can trust the quality of the data the school provides and if you do not plan to conduct any survey among children

> if you plan to conduct a survey among school children (for example, on their knowledge and practice), you can include a question: "During the last [specify time period], did you participate in a lesson where the teacher taught you about good hygiene?"

> alternatively, you can do both and then cross-check the data

If you report on the percentage of students who received hygiene education, calculate the indicator's value by dividing the number of students who received hygiene education as part of the school curriculum by the total number of the target schools' students. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage. 

Disaggregate the data by gender.

1) If hygiene education sessions are intended for students of a certain grade only, adjust your survey's sampling accordingly (i.e. do not include all students). 

2) While the indicator tells the number of children who were taught, it does not show what they actually learned (and did as a result of the learning). Consider complementing the indicator by a mini-survey assessing the extent to which children know and practice what they were taught.

3) For more indicators on WASH in schools, see UNESCO (2013) Monitoring and Evaluation Guidance for School Health Programs.