Clean school bathrooms have a significant and lasting impact on all users, including students, faculty and staff. Dirty bathrooms can create an image of sloppiness or apathy that can negatively impact anyone who uses the facilities. This image can have a long-term effect on the attitudes of students, teachers, administrators and caregivers, ultimately contributing to a reduction in the quality of the organizational climate and the satisfaction of all involved.
Young students are very impressionable. Therefore, the cleanliness of the bathrooms in their schools can influence their attitude toward maintaining a clean bathroom in their home environment.
Who Is Impacted by Clean School Bathrooms?
Clean school bathrooms can impact the following individuals:
Students: Clean school bathrooms can constructively influence students and contribute to a high level of well-being, thus fostering a positive learning environment. This positivity can help students perform to the best of their ability.
Teachers and teaching assistants: Having clean bathrooms can also positively impact the health and happiness of teachers, teaching assistants and other individuals who work within the school, such as counselors. A poorly maintained bathroom can make staff members feel that they aren’t valued.
Administrators: The benefits of clean bathrooms extend to all school administrators, such as principals and vice principals. It’s hard to feel proud of one’s work environment when the bathrooms are dirty.
Parents and guardians: Parents and guardians who visit the school for meetings with staff members or events like plays, sports competitions and talent shows are left with a favorable impression of the quality of the facility if the bathrooms are maintained to a high standard. Suppose the bathrooms are dirty and have toilet paper and other debris on the floor — seeing this may make parents doubt the effectiveness of the staff members if they seem unable to enforce rules regarding bathroom behavior.
Community members: Any community members who visit the school will have a favorable impression of the facility if the bathrooms are clean and sufficiently disinfected and sanitized.
Ways in Which Clean School Bathrooms Can Leave a Positive Impact
Clean school bathrooms can have numerous positive impacts on users. Some of the most notable include the following:
Promoting good hygiene: Good hygiene begins in the bathroom. Ensuring facilities are regularly cleaned and sanitized helps protect all individuals’ health and well-being. Students come into contact with one another often throughout the day, making schools hotbeds for spreading infections and communicable diseases. Therefore, ensuring that the bathrooms are properly clean and sanitized is essential for the safety of everyone who is in and around schools.
Improving learning and attendance: When bathrooms are properly sanitized, there is less risk of the spread of diseases, meaning fewer absences due to illness. Ultimately, this can translate to improvements in learning and academic performance. Additionally, unclean bathrooms can be distracting and negatively impact students’ concentration and mental health.
Fostering a positive school climate: A clean bathroom is important to a positive school climate and organizational culture. An unclean bathroom can create a negative impression and reduce students’ pride in their school and community. This can impact students long-term, including their attitude toward their community and how they practice cleanliness within their homes.
Reducing bullying: Dirty bathrooms may be a sign that a school environment is out of control, and students may be more likely to act out in this setting by bullying or otherwise causing disruptions. Clean facilities convey a sense of order, and this encourages appropriate behavior.
4 Tips for Maintaining Clean School Bathrooms
To ensure that the bathrooms in your school or business are always cleaned and well-maintained, here are four tips:
Set up a regular cleaning schedule. Create and implement a regular cleaning schedule. Maintain a checklist of essential tasks to ease the management of the cleaning. Make sure they are completed regularly. The frequency of the cleaning schedule will depend on the average use of the bathroom.
Stock and use appropriate cleaning supplies. Ensure that your products and equipment are up to industry standards and will effectively disinfect all bathroom surfaces to protect users. Also, ensure that products like toilet paper and paper towels are regularly restocked so users always stay supplied.
Encourage the use of proper hand hygiene. Friendly reminders near the wash areas and on the doors can remind people to practice good handwashing hygiene. This reduces the risk of spreading bacteria and promotes a healthy learning environment.
Address any issues that come up swiftly. Don’t hesitate regarding hygiene and cleanliness issues in the bathroom. These issues can worsen quickly, affecting the health and well-being of students, teachers and all staff members.
How Alsco Can Help Maintain Clean Bathrooms in Your School
At Alsco, we can take the worry and hassle of managing your school bathrooms’ cleanliness out of your hands. With our restroom services, we ensure you always have high-quality restroom supplies available. We deliver them right to you, making the process easy. Contact us to learn more.
References
How Unclean Restrooms Impact Students´ Perceptions of Your School. (August 2019). Buildings.com.
Students Say Unclean Restrooms Impact Their Perception of School. (August 2019). PR Newswire.
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools. (2016). UNICEF.