Happy Toilet School?

I could not believe my eyes to see this long banner placed outside the fence of a primary school at Jalan Membina in Singapore. It touted the school as the gold medal winner of a Happy Toilet School Education Program.

This was one of the many banners that gave citations to the numerous "accomplishments" of the schools. So many banners that lined up the fence that had made the school impersonal and well-hidden from outside view - except for looking through its main gate.

It seemed like every school would love to show that it had done well and accomplished numerous awards. In Singapore and for this school in particular, relevance appeared to have taken a second place. Quantity rather than quality counted. Putting a banner should have been done with pride, but rarely one would have wanted to claim credit for being a "Happy Toilet School." That was if one had thought through its PR priorities carefully enough so that its organization would not become the toilet hole of jokes in the neighborhood.

And in any case it was rather odd to humanize a toilet with an emotive expression such as being happy. The originator of this campaign or contest was clearly at fault to have coined the term "Happy Toilet." Whatever its reason, the worst was that it came from an educational institution that could have better projected a good use of the English language.... or pardon me, it could have been Singlish.