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PETALING JAYA: An activist has called on the government to allocate more funds for schools to maintain their toilets instead of teaching students to clean the facilities.

Mak Chee Kin, chairman of the Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education, said many schools lacked the funds to maintain the cleanliness of their toilets as the cost to do so was high.

“It’s not cheap to maintain clean toilets and many schools don’t have enough money to do so.

“The education ministry should allocate special funds for it,” he told FMT.

Mak was responding to a call by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that students be taught to keep toilets clean to “learn humility and good values”.

Yesterday, when commenting on the poor state of many school toilets, Anwar said students could benefit from being made to keep them clean.

He added that such a practice was in place during his time as the education minister in 1986.

Education minister Fadhlina Sidek subsequently welcomed the move and said the ministry would look into implementing hygiene education in schools.

However, Mak said it was unrealistic to expect students to clean school toilets when many schools lacked water supply and had pipe leakages.

“The main reason school toilets are dirty and stink is because there is no water. Many toilets also have leaking pipes and cannot flush,” he said.

Mak said the Form 6 college in Melaka, where he heads the parent-teacher association, had to spend about RM5,000 to ensure three of its toilets had sufficient water supply.

He also claimed that many students preferred to refrain from going to the toilet until they returned home after school.

Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, head of the Parent Action Group for Education, welcomed Anwar’s suggestion for students to learn how to clean toilets.

She said the move could be an extension of the weekly duty roster for students, adding that no one should be exempted from it.

Azimah said it would help students build “character, humility and empathy”. However, she said students must be provided with proper tools to carry out the tasks efficiently and safely.