TL;DR: WinS stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools. It is governed by DepEd Order No. 10, s. 2016, issued 19 February 2016, and it applies to all private and public elementary and secondary schools and learning centres. The order sets targets in six areas: water, sanitation, hygiene, health education, deworming and capacity building. It names school MOOE as the funding source and puts monitoring with the School Management Monitoring and Evaluation Section of the schools division office. The famous Three Star Approach, the one-star to three-star ladder schools talk about, is not in the order: it is the quality assurance, monitoring and recognition layer added afterwards.
If your school has a star rating on a tarpaulin, or your child came home with a deworming consent form, this is the programme behind it. Here is what it actually requires.
What the Order Sets Out
DepEd Order No. 10, s. 2016 is a policy order with an eight-page enclosure. Its stated aims are correct hygiene and sanitation knowledge among learners, better access to safe water, adequate toilets and handwashing facilities, better practices, clean and safe school grounds, and engagement of public and private partners.
The targets are written as school-level obligations.
| Element | What the order requires |
|---|---|
| Water | Every school has an organised system making adequate, safe drinking water available during school hours, plus clean water for handwashing, toilet use, menstrual hygiene management and cleaning; regular water quality monitoring against national drinking water standards |
| Sanitation | Adequate, clean, functional, safe and accessible toilets meeting the pupil-to-bowl ratio in the Sanitation Code; solid waste management with segregation; proper drainage; elimination of mosquito breeding grounds; safe food handling and preparation |
| Hygiene | Supervised daily group handwashing with soap and toothbrushing with fluoride for all learners, and a system and support mechanisms for menstrual hygiene management in all schools |
| Health education | Teachers, school heads, facilities coordinators and health personnel oriented on WinS; trained teachers conducting health education, including during PTA meetings |
| Deworming | At least 85 per cent of all students dewormed semi-annually, with parental or guardian consent obtained at enrolment or in the first days of school, done on a full stomach and in the presence of health personnel |
| Capacity building | All WinS programme implementers undergo orientation as needed |
Two things in that table are stronger than people expect. The handwashing and toothbrushing requirement is a daily supervised group activity, not an occasional campaign. And the deworming figure is a coverage target, expressed as a percentage of students, not an aspiration.
The order also names the funding source. WinS is financed from school MOOE, in accordance with school-based management under Republic Act No. 9155, specifically for maintenance and repair of handwashing, toilet, water supply and waste disposal facilities and for the regular supply of drinking and cleaning water. Our MOOE guide covers how that budget works in practice.
Disclaimer: DO 10, s. 2016 is national policy. Regions and divisions issue their own monitoring tools, timelines and reporting platforms on top of it, and those vary. We are not a government portal and do not handle submissions or accounts; the official programme site is linked in the sources below.
The Three Star Approach Is a Separate Layer
This is the most useful distinction in the whole topic, and almost nothing online makes it.
DO 10, s. 2016 states requirements and standards. It does not create stars, and the words do not appear in it. The Three Star Approach (TSA) arrived afterwards, described in DepEd's national guidelines publication as an integrated quality assurance, monitoring and recognition system to support schools towards successful implementation. It has three components: operational standards expressed as rubrics showing incremental steps towards national standards, a monitoring and evaluation system built on school self-analysis, and a recognition mechanism.
Its rollout ran through memoranda rather than a new order. Regional memoranda in 2017 directed schools to conduct baseline surveys using the enhanced Three Star Approach assessment tool pursuant to DepEd Order No. 10, s. 2016, with school-level technical working groups doing the assessment and division coordinators facilitating encoding.
The rubric structure explains why a school can be doing real work and still sit at one star. Criteria are cumulative and grouped by theme.
| Theme | One star | Three star |
|---|---|---|
| Handwashing | Daily supervised group handwashing with soap led by teachers; at least one functional group facility | Led by student leaders; pupil to group facility ratio of 1:100 for one shift; individual handwashing facilities in strategic areas |
| Toilets | Pupil to toilet seat ratio of 101 or higher, with at least two functional, clean, gender-segregated toilets | Functional pupil to toilet seat ratio by gender of 50 or fewer; a toilet accessible to persons with limited mobility |
| Water | Safe drinking water not provided by the school, children bring their own | Safe drinking water provided free to all children at all times; water quality tested more than once a year |
| Deworming | Semi-annual, with health personnel, DOH coordination and parental consent, covering 50 to 74 per cent of students | Same conditions, covering at least 85 per cent |
| Waste | No burning of waste; segregated bins in all classrooms; segregation practised | Comprehensive segregation system with policy, facility, practice and sanctions; materials recovery facility or composting |
Look at the one-star water row again. A school where children bring their own drinking water can still be a one-star school. That is the point of an incremental ladder, and it is also why a star count on its own tells you less than the criteria behind it.
One criterion is worth flagging for teachers: at two and three stars, WinS is part of INSET. The programme is meant to appear in the school's professional development block, not only in its facilities budget. Our INSET guide explains where those days come from.
Who Monitors What
The order distributes the work across all four levels.
- Schools implement, secure community and PTA participation, ensure WinS is in the School Improvement Plan and Annual Implementation Plan, gather monitoring information, run an annual performance implementation review, and submit an annual report to the division no later than the first week of December.
- Schools division offices provide technical assistance, run training, advocate with local government units, create a WinS technical working group, monitor implementation, and consolidate school reports for the region. Monitoring is assigned specifically to the School Management Monitoring and Evaluation Section, which sits in the School Governance and Operations Division. Our SGOD explainer covers that office.
- Regional offices provide technical assistance and logistical support, conduct training, run monitoring and evaluation using the national tool, and consolidate a regional report for the central office.
- The central office, through the School Health Division of the Bureau of Learner Support Services, sets strategy and policy, allocates funds, builds capacity, coordinates with the Department of Health on deworming medicines, and coordinates with the facilities engineering side on standards and specifications.
School-level status reports go up once every six months, and the annual reports consolidate upward on the December timetable.
The Partnership Rules Have Two Hard Limits
WinS is explicitly a partnership programme, and the order encourages engagement with public and private partners. It then draws two lines that do not move.
Schools must observe the prohibition on accepting donations or sponsorships from, or having any financial or material involvement with, tobacco companies, which is punishable under existing law and a separate DepEd order. And schools must observe the prohibitions in Executive Order No. 51, the Milk Code, on accepting funding, sponsorship, logistical, training, financial or material incentives or gifts from companies that manufacture or market infant formula and other breastmilk substitutes.
If a proposed WinS donation involves either category, the answer is no regardless of how useful the handwashing station would be. For how legitimate partnerships are recorded, see our guide to the DepEd partnerships database system.
What Parents Can Reasonably Ask
- Is there drinking water, and is it free? The three-star criterion is free safe drinking water for all children at all times. Ask what the school actually provides.
- How many usable toilets are there, and are they segregated? Ratios matter more than the total count.
- Is there soap today? Regular soap supply is a criterion at every star level, and it is the one most often interrupted.
- What happens for girls? Menstrual hygiene management appears at every level, from accessible sanitary pads to a secure, private changing space at three stars.
- When is deworming, and did I sign consent? Consent is required, and the order expects it to be collected at enrolment or in the first days of school.
- Is WinS in the School Improvement Plan? It is supposed to be, and the School Governance Council is one route for asking. See our SGC guide for how that body works.
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Sources
- DepEd Order No. 10, s. 2016 — Policy and Guidelines for the Comprehensive Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools (WinS) Program (official PDF)
- DepEd WASH in Schools — official programme page
- DepEd — WASH in Schools Three Star Approach: National Guidelines, the publication that sets out the star criteria
- DepEd Region VI — Regional Memorandum No. 059, s. 2017: Baseline Survey on WinS Using the Three-Star Approach, showing how the TSA was rolled out under DO 10, s. 2016
- Republic Act No. 9155 — Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, full text
