Toilets Making the Grade in Uganda

In 2022, the second round of Toilets Making the Grade (TMG) took place in Uganda under the patronage of Dr Cleophus Mugenyi, Commissioner Basic Education at the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports - three cities took part in the competition: Kampala, Lira and Apac with a total of 146 participating schools. While in Lira and Apac in northern Uganda only government-aided schools could participate in the competition, the competition in Kampala was open to all schools.

All TMG schools developed individual proposals for the long-term improvement of their sanitation facilities - a jury reviewed these and selected the winning schools. In addition to the competition, the schools in Uganda participated in the Three-Star Monitoring, which was promoted in 2022 as part of TMG. The monitoring measured which national standards schools achieved in water, sanitation and hygiene. Schools that managed to improve their Three-Star rating received additional points in the evaluation of their TMG contribution. In addition, these national standards, which were shared with the schools at the beginning of the competition, were intended to serve as inspiration for possible measures to improve the sanitation and hygiene situation.

For the second round of the TMG competition in Uganda, the GTO, in cooperation with GIZ, had set up a dedicated web portal, where schools could register for the competition and submit their proposals. All relevant documents, a detailed timetable and answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) were also available here.

In the first round of the competition in Uganda in the 2017-2018 school year, 79 public primary schools in Kampala had competed for the title of TMG model school in their district. At that time, the TMG school competition in Uganda focused on improving pupils' academic performance. After all, better health means better grades! The first round of TMG was run by the Department of Education in collaboration with the Public Health Department of Kampala Municipality.

The competition is supported by the GIZ programme "Sanitation for Millions". GTO provides the competition methodology and supports GIZ and local partners in adapting TMG to the local context as well as in the implementation of the competition.