The Role of Schools in Menstrual Health and Hygiene

School days are remembered by lessons, lunch breaks and socialising for many students. But to those who menstruate, it is a significant point of anxiety and stress. Every month, 1.8 billion people across the world menstruate, constituting a large portion of the youthful population who miss school each month due to a lack of products, privacy, or confidence, to handle their periods. Even though period poverty is an essential component of the argument, the contribution of schools goes well beyond free pads in the nurse’s office. It is about gender inequality and the culture of treating a natural biological process, not with silence or shame.

Why Menstrual Hygiene and Health Education are Essential for Schools?

Curriculum and Education of All

Traditionally, menstrual education has been taken to the sidelines, where it has been put in a girls-only environment, often tucked away in classrooms while the boys are sent to play sports. This division is among the most significant obstacles to development. By trying to keep menstrual hygiene a secret, schools unwillingly send a signal that it is something embarrassing.

Health education should be given to the entire class in order to have an all-inclusive school curriculum. Menstrual health is not a niche topic of public health, but rather the interest of women. Once schools make this a part of the main learning of all people, they make the discussion a natural biological aspect and break open the cultural taboos that have long oppressed students into silence.

Inclusive Education: Development of Empathy

To have a healthy school environment, a gender-inclusive approach to education is vital. When boys are excluded, their primary source of information often becomes the internet or playground hearsay, which can lead to misinformation and the weaponisation of periods as a punchline.

Teaching everyone about hormonal changes, physical discomfort and logistics of menstruation does two things:

• Reduces Teasing: Educating about cramps and the need for products eliminates the aura that can be the basis of bullying.

• Develops Camaraderie: When a boy is aware of what a period really entails, he is more likely to be an encouraging friend or a sibling and not a victim of the stigma.

Teacher Training: A Leader with Empathy

The experience of a student going through menstruation at school is usually determined by how he or she interacts with the staff. A moment of extreme vulnerability is an accident, like a leak on a uniform or a chair. Whether it is due to the visible discomfort of a teacher, or even worse, a teacher who has to reprimand a student because he needs to go to the bathroom, the shame may have a long-term effect.

Inclusive teacher training will mean that all employees of any sex are prepared to deal with them gracefully. This includes:

• The permit to use no-questions-asked bathroom passes in order to guarantee the management of menstrual hygiene.

• Establishing emergency supplies in bathrooms for those who cannot afford menstrual products.

• 1-2 days of menstrual leave for every calendar month, while maintaining an attendance threshold. 

By giving menstrual health a priority in schools, they are not only teaching biology, but are also teaching dignity. Breaking the stigma in the modern world means that the future generations of students will be able to concentrate on their studies without having to carry the burden of a natural cycle.

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