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The policy says hand washing facilities including soap should be provided in each school and located within the vicinity of the toilet/latrine.
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Adequate, safe drinking water points or fountains should be available in each school.
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The Ministry of Education has put in place policies that national schools are required to meet to ensure learners stay in a clean environment and prevent mass infections.
The National School Health Policy enacted in 2009 states that a healthy and hygienic school environment is actualized by safe, adequate water supply, adequate sanitation, and appropriate hygiene promotion.
The health benefits of safe and adequate water, improved sanitation and hygiene are broad in scope, ranging from reductions in diarrhoea, intestinal worms, ectoparasites, infections, and trachoma.
It also includes enhanced psycho-social well-being afforded via such factors as the dignity that goes with using a clean toilet/latrine.
To achieve a healthy and clean environment for learners, the policy requires that school management and parents be encouraged and empowered to provide adequate ablution facilities for boys and girls as prescribed in the School Health Rules and Regulations, "Building Code" and Public Health Act.
"Ablution facilities shall be designed and constructed to suit the different age groups and special needs," the policy reads in part.
The policy says hand washing facilities including soap should be provided in each school and located within the vicinity of the toilet/latrine.
Adequate, safe drinking water points or fountains should be available in each school.
The policy also requires that all schools provide sufficient and strategically located litter bins, garbage disposal pits, incinerators, and ensure proper management of liquid wastes.
"Where the school has a kitchen, appropriate food safety measures, and adequate waste disposal shall be ensured," the policy reads.
Schools are also required to review and update the standards of toilets or latrines and all other sanitation facilities.
"Care shall be taken to ensure that the toilet or latrine standards are relevant to the different geographic conditions in the country and that they are sensitive to the varying category of users needs," the policy states.
The Health Policy also seeks that effective monitoring be built into each school, zone and district.
The key to the monitoring will be to ensure that the ablution and sanitation facilities are used consistently by pupils that they are well maintained, and hygiene promotion is ongoing.
The policy says that hygiene promotion should be pupil-centered and an ongoing process whose spillover effect from the schools to homes will positively influence behaviour change.
Further, the policy states that learners and other school community members suffering from hygiene-related conditions such as jiggers or lice infestation, and ringworms, shall access treatment without discrimination or ridicule.
"School management and stakeholders shall ensure that the environment around the schools remains healthy," it says.
The policy also seeks that the District Education Office and key partners be equipped to support and provide guidance on good management, monitoring, and evaluation.