It is a huge problem for the country, yet no meaningful effort has been directed toward mitigating its dire effects on teaching and learning in schools.
The lack of toilet/urinal facilities in most schools, particularly the public ones, is a national crisis of deafening proportion.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), only two (2) out of five (5) schools in Ghana have toilet/urinal facilities and running water.
Meaning, thousands of schools in the country, especially the public schools lack toilet/urinal facilities and running water for use by the pupils.
The unfortunate spectacle, in the view of GSS and UNICEF makes pupils miss classes, because they are forced to alternate the use of the facilities in their schools.
The situation is even murkier when pupils are forced to attend to natures call outside their schools because of the non-existent of the facilities in their reach.
Apart from the financial burden the ugly development brings to the pupils, it also leads to the nurturing of miscreant behaviours among pupils.
A special case in point is a disclosure by a headmistress of a school in Accra that a female pupil is currently pregnant after going to the toilet outside the school.
In fact, UNICEFs Chief of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) David Ducan in a 2017 interview with DW news outlet, said Ghana ranks lowest in sanitation levels in schools among all lower middle income countries.
He added in that interview that as worrying as the situation is, no serious efforts are being made to address the anomaly.
"Instead of the situation getting improved, its rather deteriorating by the day," the UNICEF official sadly stated.
Apart from dilapidated structures being used as toilet/urinal facilities in schools, most schools have been compelled to close down their facilities over lack of money to empty them when they get full.
As if governments are unaware of the situation, some of the newly constructed schools have no toilet/urinal facilities in them.
Even those that are privileged to have them do not have them in adequate numbers to serve the huge numbers of pupils.
Lack of decent toilet/urinal facilities and unhygienic conditions in schools, do not only make pupils miss classes but contribute to the outbreak of deadly diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery.
It takes a boldened heart to withstand the sight of toilet/urinal facilities in public schools, not to talk about the injurious stench that comes out of them.
Therefore, it is about time the country views unsanitary conditions in schools, particularly the public ones as a crisis of national concern, requiring a concerted approach to resolving it.
Because the government alone cannot carry the burden of providing hygienic environment in public schools, individuals, organisations and corporate bodies are entreated to lend a helping hand.
It is therefore, refreshing and commendable, the efforts being put in place by Africa Schools Sanitation Foundation (Afssaf) to renovate and build new toilet/urinal facilities in public schools that lacks them.
Even with the little resources at its disposal, the foundation has been able to renovate and build ten (10) toilet/urinal facilities in some public schools in Eastern and Greater Accra regions.
The foundation which is under the leadership of Messrs Prince Osei Tutu and Kwabena Antwi Boasiako, both astute broadcasters, plans to roll out their activities in the other regions with the needed push from benevolent individuals, groups and organisation.
With the launch of the "adopt-a-school-campaign to fix their toilet/urinal to honour somebody dear to your heart", which is gaining momentum, the foundation hopes to make a lingering impact in-the-no-distant-future.
