9YO Girl Pens A Letter To “Uncle Anwar” About Terrible School Toilets

Maryam said there were only two toilets with toilet bowls and the squat toilet might have a spider tenant.

For illustration purposes

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The cleanliness of school toilets has been an issue for as long as anyone can remember. The matter is still ongoing, and the latest complaint came from a nine-year-old girl named Maryam.

Maryam wrote a letter to Uncle Anwar (aka Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) over the poor condition of the toilets in her school.

I want to tell you about my school’s bathroom. As much as I appreciate your task to make school toilets clean, I don’t think my school’s toilets are clean.
Maryam wrote in a letter to the prime minister

In the letter, Maryam described that there were only two toilets in the school that had toilet bowls.

She also said it looked like a spider could crawl out from the hole beside the squat toilet. She said the rest of the toilets have similar holes where creepy crawlies could hide.

Maryam pointed out that she saw pictures of renovated school toilets and lamented that her school toilet didn’t look similar. She added that a few of the ceiling tiles in the toilet were missing.

Maryam implored the prime minister to visit her school toilet so action could be taken to improve the toilet condition.

Anwar responded to her letter

Anwar, moved by her letter, has responded on his official Facebook and promised to quickly rectify the issue for the wellbeing of schoolchildren.

In July 2023, Anwar conducted spot checks on two schools in Sekinchan, Selangor (pic left). He also checked the cleanliness of the school toilets, citing awareness that school toilets were mostly damaged and dirty due to a lack of maintenance.

He had instructed Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek to look into the issue at the time.

A month before that, the National Parent-Teacher Association (PIBG) proposed that students with disciplinary problems have school cleaning duties.

This suggestion was met with criticism with critics arguing that cleaning duties should involve all school students to educate them about cleanliness and the importance of looking after public assets.

Netizens loved Maryam for speaking up

Netizens praised Maryam for voicing her concerns and agreed that school toilets nationwide needed many improvements, especially regarding water pressures.

A netizen also pointed out that many school children rather hold it in than use the school toilet due to the filthy conditions. This also means school children were not drinking enough water, even on hot days, just so they could skip using the toilet.

Meanwhile, another netizen claimed that funding for school toilet renovations was misused in one of the schools and teachers were allegedly warned not to report it. They tagged the Education Ministry and its minister Fadhlina Sidek too. Netizens advised the commenter to report the incident to the relevant authorities.

Needless to say, netizens hoped that more allocations would be channelled to schools to make it a comfortable environment for students.

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