DECISION

PROMULGATING REGULATIONS ON SCHOOL SANITATION AND HYGIENE

THE MINISTER OF HEALTH

Pursuant to the Law on the People’s Health Protection dated June 30, 1989; Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 68/CP dated October 11, 1993 defining functions, tasks, powers and organization structure of the Ministry of Health.

At the request of the Director of Preventive Medicine Department and the Chief Inspector affiliated to the Ministry of Health.

HEREBY DECIDES

Article 1. The Regulation on school sanitation and hygiene shall be issued together with this Decision.

Article 2. The Director of Preventive Medicine Department shall undertake the direction, instruction and examination for implementation of this Decision.

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Article 4. The Chief Officers, Chief Inspector, Director of the Preventive Medicine Department, Directors of Departments affiliated to the Ministry of Health, Director of the Department of Food Safety, Hygiene and Quality Control, Heads of affiliates to Ministries and Director of Health Departments of centrally-affiliated cities and provinces, Heads of Specialized Health Offices, shall be responsible for implementing this Decision./.

PP. THE MINISTER OF HEALTH
THE DEPUTY MINISTER




Nguyen Van Thuong

REGULATION

SCHOOL SANITATION AND HYGIENE
(Issued together with the Decision No. 1221/2000/QD-BYT of the Ministry of Health dated April 18, 2000).

Chapter 1:

GENERAL PROVISIONS

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This Regulation stipulates school sanitation and hygiene which focuses on learning environment, learning aids, equipment used for cleaning lodging and meal serving facilities at boarding or semi-boarding schools, and examination, inspection and handling of violations.

Article 2. Scope of application

This Regulation shall apply to all of the schools that belong to the basic education system: primary schools, secondary schools and high schools.

Chapter 2:

REQUIREMENTS FOR SANITATION AND HYGIENE OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Article 3. School construction site

1. A school must be located at dry, clean, bright and tranquil areas.

2. It is located within walking distance. It takes only from 20 to 30 minutes for a student to walk from home to school. The specific distance is specified as follows:

Primary students shall walk the maximum distance of 1,000m.

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High-school students shall walk the maximum distance of 3,000m.

Especially for those located in mountainous areas, the maximum distance that a student can walk shall be restricted to 2,000m for primary schools and 3,000m for secondary schools.

3. A school must be kept far away from places where toxic gases, smoke, dirt or noise is emitted. A school is also kept far away from road and ship transport terminals, petrol storage facilities, landfill sites, markets, main roads, rivers, springs or dangerous waterfalls.

Article 4. School (classroom windows that let sunlight through) must be located to South or Southeast.

Article 5. School coverage

1. A school must be spacious enough to build its classrooms, playgrounds, sports yards and green landscapes.

2. In rural or mountainous areas, a school shall not provide less than 10m² space per each student.

3. In urban areas, a school shall not provide less than 6m² space per each student.

Including:

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Green landscapes cover from 20% to 40% of total school construction site.

Playgrounds, sports yards and etc. cover from 40% to 50% of total school construction site.

Article 6. The school yard must be flat, spacious and well-drained. It must be paved, tiled, concreted or formed with crushed soil.

Chapter 3:

REQUIREMENTS FOR SANITATION AND HYGIENE OF CLASSROOMS

Article 7. Each classroom is required to provide an average space from 1.10 m² 1.25 m² per each student. Classroom dimension shall be below 8.5m in length, below 6.5m in width and 3.6m in height.

Article 8. Air ventilation

1. Each classroom must be well-ventilated to keep it cool in summer and warm in winter.

2. All classrooms must be designed with artificial air ventilation system, including ceiling fans, vent fans above light-emitting sources, etc., in order to keep the volume of CO₂ restricted to less than 0.1%.

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All classrooms shall receive the ambient luminance of 100 lux or more. Classrooms intended for students with vision impairment shall receive the constant luminance of 300 lux or more.

1. Natural lighting:

- Classrooms must be naturally lightened.

- Windowpanes where the natural light is mainly come in shall be mounted to the direction of the South of the hand opposite to the student's writing hand.

- Aggregated size of sunlight windows does not make up less than 1/5 of aggregated size of classrooms.

- Windows must be designed with blinds, shades, shutters or glass panes used for protecting in-class students from hot sunlight, rain and cold winds.

2. Artificial lighting

- Any classroom that lacks sunlight must be lightened by artificial lighting system. The number of lights shall consist of 4 filament light bulbs with the capacity ranging from 150W to 200W which are evenly hung at 4 corners of a classroom. 6-8 neon lights with each unit which is 1.2 m in length. All lights must be hung at the height of 2.8m from classroom desks.

3. Classroom ceilings must be whitewashed and classroom walls must be plastered in yellow.

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Article 11. Classrooms must be kept clean on a daily basis within 20 minutes before class begins or after class ends.

Article 12. Classroom desks and chairs

1. Classroom desks must be wide enough with firm design and have round and smoothened corners for student’s safety.

2. Classroom desks and chairs must be designed symmetrically in its dimension (height, width and depth) and must suit student’s physical characteristics.

Standard

Dimension (cm)

I

II

III

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V

VI

Height of desks

46

50

55

61

69

74

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27

30

33

38

44

46

Height difference between desks and chairs

19

20

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23

25

28

- Class-I set of classroom desk and chair intended for students with height ranging from 1.00m to 1.09m.

- Class-II set of classroom desk and chair intended for students with height ranging from 1.10m to 1.19m.

- Class-III set of classroom desk and chair intended for students with height ranging from 1.20m to 1.29m.

- Class-IV set of classroom desk and chair intended for students with height ranging from 1.30m to 1.39m.

- Class-V set of classroom desk and chair intended for students with height ranging from 1.40m to 1.54m.

- Class-VI set of classroom desk and chair intended for students with height ranging from 1.55m or more.

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3. Classroom desk arrangement: The first desk shall be arranged at the distance of 1.7m to 2m from the study board. The last desk shall be arranged at the distance of 8m from the study board.

Article 13. Study board

1. Anti-dazzling study boards must be used.

2. Dimension: from 1.8m to 2.0m in length. From 1.2m to 1,5m in width.

3. Color of the study board: green or black (in case of taking note by chalks), or white (in case of taking note by marker pens).

4. Manner of mounting a study board: in the middle of a wall with the space between the lowest edge of such study board and classroom ground surface which ranges from 0.8m to 1m.

5. Size of texts written on the study board is not smaller than 4cm in height.

Article 14. Visual pictures, teaching aids must be clean, color fast, easily visible and safe.

Article 15. Laboratory rooms

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1. The rule sheet for operation of such laboratory rooms must be written in an easily visible, detailed, sufficient manner, and must be placed at conspicuous places.

2. Ambient luminance: ranging from 150 lux to 200 lux.

3. Electricity, gas supply system and power plugs or sockets, etc. must be safe for students when they are running their laboratory tests.

Article 16. Laboratory or production facilities must meet the following requirements:

1. Each facility is required to provide an average space from 1.5 m² 2 m² per each student. In respect of technical practice facilities relating to industries such as textile, wood processing, mechanics and electricity, the average coverage must provide from 3m² to 6m² of space per each student.

2. Luminance measurement must meet industrial lighting requirements.

3. These facilities must be kept far away from classrooms and located at the end of the prevailing direction of the wind (South and Southeast).

4. Production equipment must have size and weight which are custom made for the student’s body and age.

5. Tools must be provided with a manual or guide on operation, sanitation, hygiene and safety.

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REQUIREMENTS FOR SANITATION AND HYGIENE IN LEARNING PROCESS, SPORTS OR EXERCISE PRACTICE

Article 17. Timetable must be designed with particular attention paid to the student workload which suits their learning capability, and must be logical and consist of proper rest time for students that come from different ages and physical characteristics. In hot weather condition, the class time must avoid the period from 11am to 01pm.

During the time of rest at the end of a teaching period and within an instruction period, students are forced to come out of their classrooms to refresh themselves and decrease an amount of CO₂ in the classroom.

Article 18. Indoor sports practice facility

1. These facilities must conform to hygiene safety and ventilation requirements. The amount of CO₂ is not allowed to exceed 0.1%.

2. The practice courtyard must be flat and anti-slip. These must be equipped with protective equipment (mattress, protective belts) for the purpose of injury prevention.

3. Practice equipment must be kept absolutely clean and safe. Before taking part in physical practice activities, teachers must check the safety of the practice equipment.

4. Male and female bathroom, changing room must be built in such facilities.

5. Drinking and bathing water must be sufficient.

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1. It must be flat without holes or trenches running through.

2. Football field must be covered with grass.

3. If the outdoor practice yard is dry and dusty, it must be watered 30 minutes before practice activities take place.

4. Practice activities shall last from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

5. Sports practice and competition activities that take place on wet, muddy yards or during hot or rainy weather conditions shall be banned.

6. The running pitch must be hardened with two trench drains at both sides.

7. The sand pit for long jump practice must not be mixed with gravels, stones or soil.

8. Ground surface of the field for shot putting and discus throwing practice must be hardened. Ground surface of the areas where heavy spherical objects or discs are landed must be softened without any person standing there to watch (even teachers or students).

9. During the sports practice and competition time, medical staff must be there to provide first aid or emergency services if any accident occurs.

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REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING IN-SCHOOL SANITARY AND HYGIENIC FACILITIES

Article 20. Water supply system

1. Clean, boiled or filtered water must be available for students during their school time.

In summer, each student in a specified time shift shall be provided with an average of 0.3 litters.

In winter, each student in a specified time shift shall be provided with an average of 0.1 litter.

2. Canteens that serve tea and drinks must be kept sanitary, hygienic and safe.

Article 21. Supply of clean water for bathing.

Tap water or water taking from wells can be used. As for tap water, each tap must provide clean water for 200 students in a specified time shift. As for water taking from wells, each student in a specified time shift must be provided with 4 – 6 litters.

Article 22. Latrines, pit latrines, garbage pits, waste water drains

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2. An average number of 100 – 200 students in each time shift shall be provided with 1 toilet (designed for male, female, teacher and student separately).

3. Pit latrines: An average number of 50 students in each time shift shall be given a length of 1 meter of pit latrines

4. Garbage pits: In cities or townships, a school must be designed with garbage containers. Everyday, garbage dumped from classrooms and sanitation activities shall be collected. Each classroom or office must have dustbins.

5. Closed disposal system must be installed to drain sewage or rainwater from the school to the general drainage system.

Chapter 6:

REQUIREMENTS FOR SANITATION AND HYGIENE OF BOARDING AND SEMI-BOARDING FACILITIES

Article 23. Lodging and meal serving facilities must have the rules of order maintenance and hygiene The meal serving facility of the boarding school shall be governed by the Circular No. 04/1998/TT-BYT of the Ministry of Health dated March 23, 1998 on providing guidance on management of food hygiene and safety in the food and beverage trading and service industry.

Article 24. Water supply

The boarding or semi-boarding area shall be provided with a sufficient amount of clean water for students to use in daily activities. An average amount of clean water per a student within 24 hours shall be 100-150 litters.

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1. Types of latrine: Septic or semi-septic. The number of latrines must be 1 per an average number of 25 students.

2. The number of pit latrines must be 1 per an average number of 25 students.

3. The school must provide separate latrines for male and female. In rural areas, toilet areas must be located in the Northwest of the boarding area.

Article 26. Garbage and sewage treatment

1. The boarding area must have garbage containers to collect daily garbage dumped from lodging rooms and public areas.

2. Closed disposal system must be installed to drain sewage or rainwater from the school to the general drainage system.

Chapter 7:

REQUIREMENTS FOR SANITATION AND HYGIENE OF MEDICAL CARE ROOMS

Article 27. The school must run a medical care room to provide medical services for students.

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2. Each room shall be provided with medical equipment, medicines under the guidelines of local medicine authorities.

3. If a school has boarding or semi-boarding students, isolation area must be built and medical staff must be available all day.

Chapter 8:

REQUIREMENTS OF EXAMINATION AND INSPECTION

Article 28. The preventive medicine center of a province, city or district shall be responsible for inspecting the school sanitation and hygiene as planned by local authorities. The State inspection of school sanitation and hygiene shall conform to the Rules of organization and operation of sanitation and hygiene inspection under the decision No. 332/BYT-QD of the Minister of Health dated March 3, 1997.

Article 29. Those who violate regulations on school sanitation and hygiene, depending on the severity of such violation, shall be subjected to disciplinary or administrative penalties or face a criminal prosecution; in case of any loss or damage that may arise, compensations must be paid in accordance with laws.

Handling of administrative violations against regulations on school sanitation and hygiene shall conform to regulations laid down in the Government's Decree No. 46/CP dated August 6, 1996 on stipulating penalties for administrative violations in the state management of health./.