WASH in schools
Every child has the right to a quality education, which includes access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services while at school. Children spend a significant portion of their day at school, where WASH services can impact student learning, health, and dignity, particularly for girls. The inclusion of WASH in schools in the Sustainable Development Goals (targets 4.a, 6.1, 6.2) represents increasing recognition of their importance as key components of a ‘safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environment’ and as part of ‘universal’ WASH access, which emphasizes the need for WASH outside of the home.
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) monitoring of WASH in schools includes tracking ‘basic’ drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools. JMP estimates for WASH in schools are based on the harmonized core indicators. For the purposes of SDG monitoring, a basic drinking water service means schools have access to an improved water source from which water is available, a basic sanitation service means schools have improved sanitation facilities that are single-sex and usable, and a basic hygiene service means schools have handwashing facilities with soap and water available at the time of the survey. The JMP service ladders also distinguish between schools providing a limited service that does not fully meet the criteria for a basic service, and schools that provide no service at all.
The latest JMP report on WASH in schools presents progress from 2015 to 2025 and finds that in 2025:
- 78 per cent of schools had a basic drinking water service, 9 per cent had a limited service and 13 per cent had no service. Worldwide, 429 million school-age children lacked a basic drinking water service at their school.
- 77 per cent of schools had a basic sanitation service, 11 per cent had a limited service and 12 per cent had no service. Worldwide, 460 million school-age children lacked a basic sanitation service at their school.
- 72 per cent of schools had a basic hygiene service, 9 per cent had a limited service and 18 per cent had no service. Worldwide, 545 million school-age children lacked a basic hygiene service at their school.
Drinking water in schools
In 2025, nearly four out of five children had basic drinking water services at their school.
The provision of water at schools is one of the ‘highly effective practices in increasing access and learning outcomes’.[1] In addition to the necessity of water to maintain personal and environmental hygiene, reducing student dehydration in schools has been associated with improved cognitive abilities.[2] In 2025, 429 million school-age children worldwide lacked a basic drinking water service at their school, including 171 million whose school had an improved source with no water available, and 258 million whose school still had no water service. Global coverage of basic drinking water services increased from 67 per cent in 2015 to 78 per cent in 2025, equivalent to an average increase of 1.1 percentage points per year.
Achieving universal access by 2030 would require a fourfold increase in the current rate of progress. Three out of four primary schools (76 per cent) and four out of five secondary schools (81 per cent) had a basic drinking water service. There were insufficient data to generate global estimates for pre-primary schools.
All 8 SDG regions had estimates for basic drinking water services in 2025
Sanitation in schools
In 2025, nearly four out of five children had basic sanitation services at their school.
The availability of functional and private school toilets can positively impact health and learning outcomes, particularly for girls. In 2025, 460 million school-age children worldwide lacked a basic sanitation service at their school. Among them, 244 million had no sanitation service, while 216 million had improved facilities that were not single-sex or not usable.
Global coverage of basic sanitation services in schools increased from 67 per cent in 2015 to 77 per cent in 2025, equivalent to 0.9 percentage points per year. Achieving universal access by 2030 would require a fivefold increase in the current rate of progress.
Coverage of basic sanitation services was higher in secondary schools (79 per cent) than in primary schools (75 per cent), but there were insufficient data to generate global estimates for pre-primary schools.
All 8 SDG regions had estimates for basic sanitation services in schools in 2025
Hygiene in schools
In 2025, nearly three out of four schools worldwide had basic hygiene services at their school.
Handwashing has strong links to health, particularly in public or institutional settings. Despite the importance of handwashing with soap, 545 million school-age children lacked a basic hygiene service at their school in 2025. Among them, 362 million had no hygiene service at their school, while 183 million had facilities with water but no soap.
Global coverage of basic hygiene services in schools increased from 59 per cent in 2015 to 72 per cent in 2025, equivalent to 1.4 percentage points per year. Achieving universal access by 2030 would require a fivefold increase in the current rate of progress.
Coverage of basic hygiene services was similar in primary schools (71 per cent) and secondary schools (72 per cent), but there were insufficient data to generate global estimates for pre-primary schools.
Seven of the eight SDG regions had estimates for basic hygiene services in schools in 2025
References
[1] World Bank Group, World development report 2018: Learning to realize education’s promise, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, Washington DC, 2018.
[2] Edmonds, Caroline J., and Denise Burford, ‘Should Children Drink More Water? The effects of drinking water on cognition in children’, Appetite, vol. 52, no. 3, June 2009, pp. 776–779; Fadda, R., et al., ‘Effects of Drinking Supplementary Water at School on Cognitive Performance in Children’, Appetite, vol. 59, no. 3, December 2012, pp. 730–737.
Drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) estimates
Water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH) data
Build and download your own customisable dataset
Resources
Notes on the data
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene
Since 1990, WHO and UNICEF have tracked progress on global water and sanitation goals through the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP). The JMP monitors trends in coverage; helps build national monitoring capacity in developing countries; develops and harmonises questionnaires, indicators and definitions to ensure comparability of data over time and among countries; and informs policymakers of the status of the water supply and sanitation sector through annual publications. The JMP draws guidance from a technical advisory group of leading experts in water supply, sanitation and hygiene, and from institutions involved in data collection and sector monitoring. Further information about the JMP and its methodology can be found at the JMP website.
Data sources
The JMP estimates for WASH in schools are based on information collected through national Education Management Information Systems (EMIS), censuses and surveys, as well as secondary sources (e.g. UNESCO UIS) in the absence of primary data. Data are harmonized to the extent possible based on the indicator definitions for ‘basic’ service. Further details on indicators, data sources and methods for WASH in schools estimates can be found at the JMP website, including recommended core questions to support harmonized monitoring: Core questions and indicators for monitoring WASH in schools in the SDGs and methodology for generating harmonized indicators: JMP WASH in Schools Methodology (November 2021)
Definitions of basic WASH services in schools
Schools with an improved drinking water source with water available at the time of the questionnaire or survey are classified as having ‘basic’ service. Schools without water available, but with an improved source are classified as having ‘limited’ service, and those with unimproved or no water source are classified as having ‘no service’.
Schools with improved sanitation facilities which are single-sex and usable at the time of the survey or questionnaire are classified as having ‘basic’ service. The term ‘usable’ refers to toilets or latrines that are accessible to students (doors are unlocked or a key is available at all times), functional (the toilet is not broken, the toilet hole is not blocked, and water is available for flush/pour-flush toilets), and private (there are closable doors that lock from the inside and no large gaps in the structure). Those using improved sanitation facilities which are either not single-sex or not usable are classified as having ‘limited’ service. However, pre-primary schools without single-sex toilets may still be considered to have ‘basic’ sanitation service if the toilets are usable. Schools with unimproved or no toilets are classified as having ‘no service’.
Schools with handwashing facilities with water and soap available at the time of the questionnaire or survey are considered to have ‘basic’ service. Those with handwashing facilities that have water available at the time of the questionnaire or survey, but no soap, are considered to have ‘limited’ service, while schools with no facilities or no water available for handwashing are classified as having ‘no service’.