Teaching is more than transmitting information
Life skills education uses teaching and learning methods that are more than the transmission of information. The teaching and learning methods are meant to be interactive and participatory with room for both information-focused sessions and child-centred sessions. Through the use of participatory learning activities, such as games, exercises, and group assignments, the students acquire a wider range of life skills than on health and hygiene alone. For example, as part of the lessons on health and hygiene, children may develop attitudes of respect for the opposite gender, for older and younger people and people weaker or less fortunate than they themselves. They could practice activities that show openness to and respect for habits of other groups.
Traditional approaches are often information-based and didactic, and often neglect the ‘real life’ applications of information and the role of attitudes and values or the need for interpersonal skills, especially related to sensitive issues and personal behaviour. Making healthy life choices, gaining greater resistance to negative pressures, and minimising harmful behaviour such as drug use and taking HIV/AIDS related risks is complex. The life skills approach is designed to reduce that complexity. Since hygiene education also aims at changing risk-behaviour, the life skills approach is perfect for application in this field.

The child-friendly approach to school hygiene, sanitation and water aims to design, construct and maintain WaSH facilities that are part of the learning environment, are hygienic and safe to use and can be sustained and maintained by the school community itself for by Child Cabinets / Sanitation Clubs.

School should offer enough capacity and minimal waiting time: When there are not enough facilities for the number of school children, children search for other places to urinate and defecate, ‘forget’ to wash their hands, throw garbage on the ground or drink water from unsafe sources. Ensuring the right capacity is usually not a matter of applying a simple ratio. There are some other important factors that determine the required capacity besides the total number of school children, such as the times when children are allowed to go to the toilet/drink water/ wash hand, the number of adults that are available to help the youngest children to go to the toilet and the future growth of the school population.

It should Stimulate children’s learning and development, and ensure that educational tools are designed in an age-appropriate way :Learning and development can best be stimulated interactively. When this is done in a stimulating, playful manner, children will be eager to put their new knowledge and skills into practice. Particularly in a school environment, the hygiene and sanitation facilities can provide the opportunity for this interaction and are a potential extension of the learning environment. This makes them a powerful tool for hygiene education.

A well-designed facility will lose its effect if it is not properly looked after. A good operation and maintenance plan will not only indicate who is responsible for cleaning, maintenance and the costs involved, it will also ensure involvement of children, teachers, parents and the community in the continuous process of monitoring and improving hygiene practices at school. More on this can be found in the chapter 5 on programme planning aspects.

To be successful school sanitation and hygiene education must address a combination of hardware and software issues. Only in combination can the two conditions for better health of school children be met:
1. Availability of good facilities;
2. The adoption of healthy practices.
WASH in schools programmes therefore should focus on both effective education and effective facilities.

Because children spend a significant amount of time in and around their schools, such situations have a major impact on their well-being . Also, when a school lacks access to a basic water supply and sanitation facilities and its students have poor hygiene habits, the incidence of major childhood illnesses among its students will increase. This will adversely affect school children’s participation , lowering enrolment rates and increasing absenteeism, poor classroom performance, and early school dropout. The lack of appropriate facilities may discourage children from attending school; Girls who are menstruating, in particular, would rather not go to school than have to deal with such a lack of privacy, and with appropriate WASH facilities, gender can be addressed.It will also decrease learning capacity as measured in educational performance, outcomes, and productivity. In addition, the unsanitary conditions typical of many school toilets will send children the wrong message about the importance of sanitation.
Further WASH in schools focuses on the development of life-skills on hygiene among school children. What children learn today about hygiene and prevention of sanitation and water borne diseases, is most likely to be passed on to their peers, family members and their future children.