Guaranteeing clean, safe and accessible toilets for all pupils is a strong commitment set out in the Community Policy Statement. Indeed, the state of toilet facilities has a direct impact on pupils' well-being.
In order to step up renovation efforts and educational support in schools, the Government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation therefore approved, on 12 December, the granting of a €278,000 subsidy to the King Baudouin Foundation, as part of the BYX Fund, for the campaign “Ne tournons pas autour du pot!”
Since 2017, more than 400 schools have already been supported in rethinking, renovating or better managing their toilet facilities. The BYX Fund offers not only financial support but also assistance including:
- Educational tools, posters and resources, particularly on hand or dental hygiene;
- Exchange workshops;
- Personalised advice for teaching teams;
- Involving pupils in the layout and management of the facilities, to teach them respect for these spaces.
This new subsidy will help finance renovation projects of up to €5,000 per school, for around 50 to 55 schools, and will also support schools receiving school infrastructure funding, so that good practices can be directly integrated into toilet construction or renovation projects.
“Ensuring clean and functional toilets means providing pupils with a dignified and healthy environment. It is a concrete improvement to their daily lives, but also an essential lever for health, trust and respect for shared spaces in society. With this new funding, we are responding to a concrete request from the field. Indeed, this was one of the concerns raised by the Comité des Elèves Francophones (CEF), which I met recently”, concluded Valérie Glatigny, Minister of Education.