Creating a Healthy School Environment

School is one of institution which has a main funtion to enhance students’ knowledge
and abilities, school is where we acquire a variety of knowledge as a basic for survival in the
future. For students, learning activities require a healthy school environment, comfortable for
learning, clean, and quite trees. Learning achievement is not only influenced by how children
keen to learn and understand the lessons in school, but also the condition of the school
environment that supports it. A comfortable and clean School environment can support
students development optimaly, students become more healthy and think clearly, so that the
students can become intelligent and qualified human resources in the future.

Nowadays, many schools claime to be a healthy school, but the school is not
necessarily meet the criteria of a healthy school. A healthy school environment is an
environment that successfully helps students to achieve optimally by prioritizing health and
safety aspects in the learning process. The school environment is part of an inseparable life,
moreover our next generation depends on academic activities at school. A healthy and
comfortable school environment will produce a conducive learning environment so that
students can learn effectively and achive optimally.

There are some efforts that can be made to create a healthy school environment.

The first thing to do is to declare a green school program. The growth of an area
causes shady trees cleared to become buildings. This is what makes the amount of oxygen
decrease. Oxygen is one of the supporters of developing students intelligence. A small
amount of oxygen in humans will cause the blood supply to the brain becomes slow, even
though the nutrients we eat everyday are conveyed by blood to our bodies. That's why we
need a lot of shady trees in the school grounds and the environment around the school.

Then the school must have adequate field facilities. Field facilities are something that
is very important for teaching and learning activities in schools, especially those related to
dexterity and physical education. In addition, the field can also be used for student do
activities, morning ceremonies, and big day celebration or performing arts activities that
require a wide area.

Provide enough trash bin. Trash is not a new issue that causes damage to the
environment, as well as in the school environment. During breaks, students often take instant
foods so they can be taken anywhere. However, students' awareness to dispose of trash is still
lack, because there may still be a lack of trash bins. Therefore schools must provide enough
trash bins which are placed in every corner of the school so students can see and be aware.

After providing enough trash bin, then cultivate an environmentally caring attitude
towards students by launching various programs that can make students aware of the
importance of maintaining the cleanliness and health of the school environment.
 Providing hand washing facilities, including the availability of clean running water,
soap, and drainage systems. This hand washing facility should be placed in front of the
classes and students can clean their hands every time their hands are dirty, so they can
prevent disease from their hands carrying bacteria and virus.

Make a good sanitation system. A good sanitation system is the most important
condition of a healthy environment. With a clean sanitation system, all school members will
be more comfortable in conducting the teaching and learning process. In addition, a well
water infiltration system is also needed to drain rain water so it does not become a puddle that
can make the school environment dirty, or even dangerous if it’s being inhabited by mosquito
larvae.

Conduct strict monitoring and enforce strict school regulations so that school
members are willing and consciously willing to carry out order and school rules. In this case,
the school must be involved to ensure that all regulations that have been made can be fully
implemented by all school members.

A sturdy school building. This will make students feel comfortable in learning. As we
often see on TV, many school buildings have collapsed. Either because of the age or because
of the poor quality of the building. Naturally, the condition of the school building has a
negative impact on students. Students will not feel comfortable in learning.

If it’s possible, schools should take advantage of national holidays for positive
activities, such as voluntary work to clean the school or launch environmental care activities.
This can also help to create more awareness for students to care and love the environment.

Healthy schools are principally focused on how to make the school have a good
learning environment. This is characterized by a school situation that provides a sense of
comfort, clean, beautiful, and upholds the values of togetherness in order to achieve
prosperity for every school member. Thus, healthy school allows students to do some useful
activities and carry out effective learning that helps students achieve optimally.

By doing some of the efforts above, it means that we are trying to improve the quality
of learning by maintaining our school environment in order to make it always clean, healthy
and comfortable for students to study.