Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Omkara]

I wonder if mine is the only school which has the students clean the restrooms with only cold water and does not provide detergent of any kind. I think they use detergent twice a year, no kidding.

The school apparently does not think that it is a health issue, nor do they see it that the student's health is our responsibility. . .at least at the level of germs.

For example, when children are ill, they are allowed to just put their heads down instead of being sent to a school nurse or, if really ill, sent home.

Do the schools just have no money to fund such basic things as detergent or a proper school health program?

I've raised the issue a few times and have gotten the predictable result: I can still smell the foul restrooms from down the hall and kids go on spreading colds and germs no matter how ill they are.

[xCustomx]

Students usually clean out the bathrooms every day and they actually use some kind of cleaning solvent. What they don't have is soap, which really upsets me. I brought a bar of soap to school one day, and two days later a student stole it from the teacher's bathroom. I got one of the secretarys to give me a bar, and the next day it was stolen again.

[nomad-ish]

my school this year has a little old cleaning lady who cleans the bathrooms and i think she uses soap, things look pretty clean after she leaves... but i don't know for sure.

now, my school last year was a different story. the kids would clean the bathrooms and halls and classrooms and (sometimes) office with the same frickin' mop. the halls would smell of urine after they were done. i had the kids stop cleaning my desk just because the cloth they were using probably had more germs on it than my desk.

[Omkara]

Wow, that's gross. Doesn't surprise me, though.

[EricaSmile84]

We have a bar of bath soap in the ladies' room. It's usually slimy and waterlogged though. Some teachers bring their own handsoap at their desks but I don't see a point in 10 people washing their hands in a place where 1200 people don't.

The other sick thing is that the students take all of the teacher's coffee mugs (except mine) and "wash" them in this huge sink where lots of dirty things go on. For a while they were using laundry detergent in this paper cup as soap... now there is nothing. YUCK!!!!

[daddy daycare]

maybe they use the soap to make soap sculptures for art class !!

[Easter Clark]

My school is filthy. There is no soap in any of the bathrooms and germs are rampant. I always smile when a coworker washes his hands before lunch without soap, then asks if I'm going to wash up. My floor has been mopped maybe two or three times in the past year (just a wet rag with no detergent). None of the classrooms have trash cans--instead students come around to the classrooms after school and sweep up the trash and dispose of it in one of the community trash cans in the hall, so you get a big pile of paper at the end of the day. The mens' restroom gets mopped every day but the urinals are only cleaned once or twice a month (and I can smell them from my classroom). Several male teachers use the restroom as a place to smoke, and many times I have caught a whiff of cigarettes in the middle of class.

The problem with having the students clean the school is that (1)they haven't been properly shown how to clean, (2) they aren't provided with the proper cleaning tools (like soap and a clean mop) and (3) they just want to go home and try to "clean" as fast as possible. Oh, and nobody ever checks to make sure they've done a good job.

Of course I have tried to do my part--I bring my own hand soap and never give a student a handshake or a high-five (even though I'd like to) because of fear of catching pink-eye. I even bleached my classroom floors once but after a few days it was back to normal. I get the students to pick up their trash after every class but more often than not it just ends up in their desks. I also have them wipe off the desks after class as punishment for writing on them. But the place is still a mess. I figure, if nobody else is going to care about the cleanliness of the classroom, why should I?

[JJJ]

The grandma who cleans our bathrooms just floods it. I'm having a pee and she walks in with a hose and lets the water spill all over until there is almost a centimeter of water and walks out. Kinda funny actually.

Cleaning the floors; maybe once a month by some punished students who again, flood the floor and use a little broom to wipe the water to the end of the hall and down the stairs.

I would never wear sandals in my school and I think some teachers over-react to students who forget their "indoor shoes". Everyday, I see kids running laps, doing squats or push ups because they forgot to bring their black/white sandals. As far as I'm concerned, if the teachers don't wear them, why should they. Oh well. C'est la vie in Korea.

[Omkara]

That's why the problem needs to be dealt with at an administrative level. I hope that the EPIC program reads these forums to get an idea of what we think, etc.

So, it is my hope that someone with a little bit of pride will read this and try to make some changes. The issues are not trivial. They are a matter of public health. The schools have a responsibility to make sure that the students and staff do not fall needlessly ill.

Several horrible diseases can be spread through such poor sanitation conditions. For example, hepatitis can be spread this way, and 10% of Koreans suffer this disease. Many cases are passed from monther to child at birth. So, it follows that a significant number of our students have this disease which can spread through dirty restrooms.

But, the stink is just funny. Everyone always just laughs when I bring it up. Or, they feel embarrassed. But no one ever does a damn thing about it.

[Easter Clark]

[sojourner1]

My 2 schools are very dirty and don't have any soap. I've never smelled bleach or cleaning liquids in the building and it appears they just use cold water to clean with. One school doesn't have a cleaning lady and the other school has one, but that one old lady doesn't have much to work with. In the small school without a cleaning lady, the students are assigned the chore of cleaning, but they do a bad job and don't have adequate supplies to work with.

Soap in the bathroom sinks is usually not present. Every time I put a bar out, it's gone within a day or two. Cleaning and sanitation is something Korea is not so concious about unless it's a nice business office building or nice hotel. Might be just a lack of having priorities straight. You can have a $6,000 HDTV in the library along with an extensive science room full of cool exhibits that doesn't get used, but no school lunch and sanitation services.

[sjk1128]

But everybody still brushes their teeth every day after lunch like they're about to go on the hottest date of their lives, right?

[I_Am_The_Kiwi]

Thats simply how its done in Korea.

No soap, no detergent, no specific mops for specific areas, no washing of the hands after using the bathroom.......

So you wash your hands at school? good on you, but do you open the door with the same door knob as everyone else? probably - so there goes all your hand washing cos now your sharing the same crap as everyone else.

There is no fighting it. There is NO changing it.

Kids go home when their sick....yeah right, not even teachers have the sense to stay home and no infect everyone else, you rekon the kids would get that luxury. Go to the nurse.....HA! unless your arm just got cut off dont bother. Cover the mouth when they cough...LOL good luck.

[DrOctagon]

The thing I hate the most is how they throw away their dirty toilet paper in a trash can after wiping their arses with it. I'm sure the toilets can handle a little bit of toilet paper. I throw it in there all the time.
I hate having to use the john and seeing crap stained teepee overflowing from a tiny garbage can in the stall. Freakin' reeks!

[expat2001]