The Ghana Education Service (GES) has been urged to insist that all schools have decent toilets and urinals before that are allowed to operate.

Mr. Ibrahim Musah, Head of Policy and Partnership of WaterAid-Ghana, a Civil Society Organization, described as worrying the situation where these facilities were lacking in some schools.

A standard school, he said, should have classrooms, a library, staff common room, urinal and toilet.

He was speaking at a two-day training workshop held for members of the Ghana WATSAN Journalists Network (GWJN) in Ashanti Region, in Kumasi.

It was jointly organized by the Water and Sanitation for Urban Poor (WSUP), WaterAid-Ghana and the GWJN.

The Network was formed in 2008 with support from the WaterAid-Ghana to build the capacity of journalists to better report on issues relating to water, sanitation and hygiene. Mr. Musah said many pupils and their teachers had been going through a lot of inconvenience due to either broken down or absence of washrooms in their schools.

Some of the children end up as truants, using the excuse of visiting toilets outside the school compound to stay away from classes.

There is also the problem of defecating in bushes close to the school, an unhealthy practice that could pre-dispose the children to diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera.

Mr. Musah spoke of instances where girls in their puberty, are forced during their menstruation, to miss classes because they have no place of convenience to change their sanitary pads.

Mr. Edmund Smith-Asante, Deputy National Coordinator of GWJN, called for the provision of hand washing facilities in schools and public toilets to improve hygiene.