Lack of school cleaning staff turns students into cleaners

Pupils have complained about the lack of hygiene in government schools, in addition to the shortage of water.
Some have said that they are forced to undertake cleaning tasks or even that schools sometimes ask for their help.
A local newspaper met with pupils and their families and voiced their concerns to educational supervisors, school principals and educational advocates.
Pupils have said that they find classrooms full of dust at the beginning of the year, which ruins air conditioning units. Pupils have also been said to bring the units down to clean them during class time and that cleaning-related tasks often also extend to the rest of the classroom.
Commentators on the Saudi public education system say that public schools suffer from lack of laborers. Some schools only have one janitor even though the schools are large and there is significant student turnover. Lack of hygiene creates an unhealthy educational environment and could contribute to the spread of diseases. Dust affects those who suffer from asthma and other respiratory conditions or chronic inflammations.
They said educational directorates do not allow such violations and that school principals should hire janitors to carry out cleaning tasks daily. Wages should be taken out of funds that are allocated to the school. Some schools allocate money either from the school canteen or through donations from teachers to pay for laborers who clean the school every Friday. Commentators have stressed on the fact that this is illegal and that cleaning only once a week means the school will be dirty the rest of the week.
A teacher suggested applying a self-employment system, where an operational and maintenance budget will be allocated to each school according to its size, number of pupils, location of the school and the cost of employing the workforce. This budget should be invested in the school canteen.
“Schools can increase their income by renting some of its facilities to companies and restaurants that provide a healthy diet for pupils,” he said.
An educational supervisor, who chose to remain anonymous, said it is forbidden to allow children to undertake cleaning tasks and that the Ministry of Education issues circulars each year about this issue. Involving children in cleaning activities can only be done through public participation and voluntary work inside the school premises. In addition, he said, lack of cleaning staff is caused by financial mismanagement.
He suggested hiring private cleaning companies to fill up the existing gap at schools and commended principals who have already assigned cleaning tasks to private companies.