1st German school toilet summit

1. Deutscher Schultoilettengipfel
Why

The 1. Deutscher Schultoilettengipfel (1st German School Toilet Summit) took place in Berlin on 18 June 2024. Around 150 participants from politics, administration, the private sector, science, associations and foundations as well as various school stakeholders - including school administrators, pupils, teachers, parents, social workers and support associations - accepted the invitation from the German Toilet Organisation (GTO). The summit was organised in partnership with the Federal Pupils‘ Conference and the Federal Parents’ Council and was the first meeting of many relevant stakeholders to improve school toilets.

The all-day event began with a high-profile morning session in which the relevance and multi-layered problems surrounding school toilets were clearly stated from an educational perspective by the President of the Conference of Education Ministers, Christine Streichert-Clivot, and from a medical perspective by Prof Dr Dietrich Grönemeyer, among others.

As part of the award ceremony for the nationwide Toiletten machen Schule® competition, which was moderated by Julian Janssen, 10 schools were honoured for having developed the best concepts for the sustainable improvement of their school toilets out of 135 nationwide submissions. The approaches of the 3 main and 7 special prize winners served as inspiration for a subsequent panel discussion - a moderated comparison of perspectives from representatives of the most important stakeholder groups: Bundesschülerkonferenz, Bundeselternrat, Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft, Deutscher Städtetag, GTO and the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family.

The afternoon served to strengthen cooperation between the stakeholder groups represented. Four inspiring short presentations by renowned experts on the topics of healthy learning environments, vandalism, pedagogical architecture and strong school culture were followed by a group work phase. Finally, the results of the day were summarised in a plenary session.

You can download the results of the summit as a PDF or view them on the official summit website (website in German).

Facts
  • 150
    stakeholders took part in the summit.
  • 600
    press reports on the summit were published.

School toilets are an indispensable part of the essential structural infrastructure for a good learning environment in every school. However, school toilets are also a place where people learn how to deal with public property.