TOWARDS HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOLS

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Title
TOWARDS
HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOLS
extracted text
SDA-RF-CH-2.1

TOWARDS
HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOLS
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Regional Office for South-East Asia,
New Delhi

Health and Education
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"The benefits ofpromoting the health ofschool
children extendfar beyond meeting their immediate
needsfor improving healthfor better learning.
Tomorrow’s communities are in the making today.
Empowering school children with the knowledge and

skills to promote their health and well-being, the
health of theirfamilies and their communities, should

communities. But the foundations of such
synergy are largely set at school.

be the primary concern of everybody. Promoting
health through schools is a singular innovative

approach to respond to the needs ofschool children,
school personnel and communities. ’

Dr. Uton Muchtar Rafei
Regional Director

Good health supports successful learning
as much as successful learning supports
health. Research again indicates that healthy

children:

• have higher daily school attendance;
• learn better;
• take full advantage of every opportunity to

' |~j' ducation and health are two sides of the
T / same coin. The critical synergistic

learn and thus achieve higher academic

relationship between education and health

• tend to maximize social relationships and
interactions at school and at home, tl^B^

status is widely recognized. With a higher

excellence;

level of education, the chances for better jobs

improving their chances of balanced

and access to facilities and services which

development.

promote health, are greatly increased.
Research indicates that literate women tend

Education increases children's opportunities

to keep healthy. Acquisition of health-related

to:

knowledge, attitudes, skills and practices

• marry later;

empower children to:

• exercise better control over their fertility;
• protect their own health and that of their

children;

• adopt better breastfeeding practices and
immunize their children.

• pursue a healthy life, now and in the future;
• work as agents of change for the improved
health for their families and communities.

• gain self-reliance, develop positive selfesteem and self-assertiveness which enable

Educated people are better able to respond

them to cope with the pressures of a socio­

to health needs of their families and

culturally diverse and highly competitive

contribute to the well-being of their

world;

Also :

• families benefit by the vast pool of health

• communities gain by acquiring increased

information and skills that the child brings

awareness of health problems and their

home from school, which can be used to

solutions through their involvement

and

in school activities and community health

improve knowledge, practices

conditions at home;

T

projects.

he concept of health promoting schools

is about helping schools to build and use
their entire organizational capacity to
improve health among the pupils, staff,
families and community members.

What is a health promoting school?

for and requires commitment to the provision

A health promoting school is described as a

of a safe and health-enhancing social,

school constantly strengthening its capacity

physical and psycho-social environment.

as a healthy setting for living, learning and
'O^king. It focuses on creating health

How can you know a health

and preventing important causes of death,

promoting school?

disease and disability by helping school

A health promoting school strives to:

children, staff, family members and

community members to:
o care for themselves;

o set clear goals and objectives for the

promotion of health and safety for the
whole school community;

o make decisions and have control over

• implement policies that enable all pupils to

circumstances that affect their health;

fulfil their physical, psycho-social and social

• create conditions that are conducive to

potential, promote their self-esteem and

health.

acknowledge good effort and personal

achievements;

Such a school aims to achieve healthy lifestyles

a promote the health of school personnel,

for the whole school population by developing

families and community members as well

supportive environments conducive to the

as students through developing a culture of

promotion of health. It offers opportunities

social responsibility for health;

• foster health and learning through good

• plan and implement a coherent school

staff-pupil and pupil-pupil relationships

health education curriculum that actively

and establishment of good and healthy

engages school children through child-

links between the school, the home and

centred approaches;

community';

• provide nutrition and food safety

• exploit available resources by maximizing

programmes, school health services,

on the services of health and education

opportunities for physical education,

officials, teachers, students, parents,

recreation, counselling, social support and

professional associations, the private sector

and community leaders and groups in

efforts to promote health;

mental health promotion;

• equip school children with the knowled^
and skills they need to make sound decisions

• provide a health promoting environment for

about their personal health and to preserve

working and learning through its buildings,

and improve a safe and healthy school

play areas, catering facilities, water and

physical environment.

sanitation facilities;

Gysdfag

feir actto

r P1 he vision of promoting health through
I schools is guided by the recommen­
dations of the WHO Expert Committee on

Comprehensive School Health Education and
Promotion. These are:
• Investment in schooling must be improved

and expanded.
• The full educational participation of girls

must be expanded.

of resources at the local, national and
international levels to support school health.
• Teachers and school staff must be properly

• Every school must provide a safe learning

valued and provided with the necessary

environment for students and a safe work

support to enable them to promote health.

place for staff.

• The community and the school must work

• Every school must enable children and

together to support health and education.

adolescents at all levels to learn critical

• School health programmes must be well

health and life skills.

• Every school must more effectively serve
as an entry point for health promotion and
as a location for health intervention.
• Policies, legislation and guidelines must be

designed, monitored and evaluated to ensure

their successful implementation and
outcomes.
• International support must be further

developed to enhance the ability of Member

developed to ensure the identification,

States, local communities and schools to

allocation, mobilization and coordination

promote health and education.

Strategies for Action
romotion and development of health

P

promoting schools involves four main
strategies:

Advocacy
For the concept of health promoting

schools to be a national priority,

advocacy but also help mobilize the necessary

advocacy to create awareness among

resources. For effective school health

policy-makers, the general population,

promotion, communities and schools should

training and academic institutions, the

necessarily be partners in this endeavour.

community, parents, schools and students is

critical.
Advocacy to achieve a common understanding

Strengthening national
and local capacity

of the concept, its strengths, strategies and

Capacity building by necessity

priority action areas is required. Consensus

should be at all levels, from the

on goals, strategies, plans of action and resources

national level to the schools in communities.

need to be built.

The capacity and capability of health
promotion advocates to promote health

through schools, is an important requirement.

Partnerships and Alliances
The multiple factors which affect

Health promoters need to be trained, among

the health status of school children,

others, in research, documentation and

as well as teachers and school

dissemination of success stories.

personnel demand an intersectoral action.
Building a sustainable partnership between the

Orientation of policy makers, training of

focal ministries of education and health and

teachers, community leaders and school

other sectors such as environment, urban and

leadership could ensure their active

town planning, finance and economic

participation in needs assessment, programme

planning, NGOs and the private sector should

planning, monitoring and evaluation.

be a priority.
Development of appropriate guidelines,
Alliances with professional bodies, unions,

manuals and tools are necessary to support

associations and private companies would not

capacity building.

only provide the necessary platform for

Research, monitoring and

Appropriate methodologies, guidelines,

evaluation

protocols and tools for situation analysis and

Effective and sensitive programmes

monitoring of planning and implementation

are built on good baseline data.

processess as well as evaluation are crucial

Programmes should be designed to have a

requirements. Evaluation and documentation

research and evaluation component that helps

of programmes should be used as tools to

in constantly monitoring and fine-tuning the

legitimize the cause of health promoting
schools.

programme.

parents, students, community members, and
Build support for health promoting

health workers.

schools

Identify a group of people who are interested

Define the role of the team which should

in health promotion, including the
management of about 10-15 schools in

include providing leadership and guidance
for the development and implementation!^

communities in the same neighbourhood.This

an action plan of health promoting schools.

group could also include local, interested

teachers, students, parents and community

Work with the team and school management

leaders.

to appoint a leader/coordinator for the dayto-day follow-up and liaison. The coordinator

Advocate the cause of health promoting

could be a teacher or volunteer from the

schools by highlighting the rationale, the

community or a student.

benefits and vision of the concept. Share ideas
on what it does, how it works and who should
be a part of it. Secure the agreement and

commitment of management and community

Form a community advisory group

A group made up of leaders from the

to develop health promoting schools.

communities in which selected schools are
situated including other sectors such as

Develop a school health team

environment, public works as well as local
industries, womens' groups, members from

Build a school health team made up of

representatives of interested teachers,

finance and health institutions, transport,
NGOs, municipal or local government,

unions and professional associations should

Develop schools' policies and plans of action

be formed. The advisory group could further

based on the identified issues with clearly

advocate for health promoting schools,

defined roles for implementation by

promote establishment of new health

stakeholders. Set appropriate target dates

promoting schools, mobilize external

for the implementation of each activity

resources and help address health and other

and indicators
evaluation.

problems that affect the health of school

for monitoring and

children, teachers and communities.

Develop mechanisms for resource mobiliza­
£arry out situation analysis

tion such as school concerts, sale of school

Find out the disease burden in the community,

prepared products such as crafts, toiletries and

actions taken, existing health laws, regulations,

mementos; sponsorship by individuals,

policies and resources for health. Assess the

companies, groups and parents' contributions.

current school efforts in school health as well
as the disease burden, environmental and social

Identify mechanisms for collaboration and

factors which affect the health of school

institute reporting systems.

children.
Implement, monitor and evaluate

The health knowledge of teachers and school

Develop appropriate teaching/learning

children should be documented. The level of

resource materials and carry out relevant

involvement of parents, community leaders,

training and orientation programmes.

groups and NGOs in school health should
also be documented. Possible resources for

Identify out-of-classroom learning situations,

jpealth promoting schools, both local and

activities and projects, which could actively

external should be identified.

engage school children, parents, communities,
other sectors and stakeholders together for

Identify an entry point

action. Monitor progress through regular

Identify health promotion issues, which are the

review meetings, share information with
stakeholders. Evaluate after the end of target

need of the majority of school children, staff,

parents and community. This could be

date, disseminate results as widely as possible,

deworming of school children, providing mid­

and replan.

day meals, safe drinking water, building toilets,

improving parent-teacher relationships,

Develop a local network

preventing tobacco and alcohol use, improving

Advocate for networking among participating

out-of-school learning situations, preventing

schools. Share information on the benefits

accidents and violence reduction, etc.

of networking. Develop collectively the

responsibilities and criteria for participation
Develop a Plan of Action

Develop clear aims for the promotion ofhealth

in the network as well as strategies for helping
other schools become health promoting

and safety for the whole school community.

schools.

Health promoting schools should be seen as the beginning of healthy living,
not only for school children but for the entire community. Investing in school

health is a very sound investment with everlasting returns.

For more information phase contact WHO country offices
BANGLADESH

MALDIVES

WHO Representative
House No. 12, Road No. 7
Dhanmondi Residential Area,
Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh

WHO Representative
G. Antares (Ground Floor), Husnuheenaa

Fax: 863247, Tel: 864653-55,

Fax: 324210, Tel: 327519(WR)

BHUTAN

MYANMAR

WHO Representative
Social Ministry Secretariat

WHO Representative

Magu, Opp. NE Corner of Postal Building
Male, Republic of Maldives
|

39, Shwe Taung Gyar Road,
Yangon, Myanmar
Fax: 511078, Tel: 511076(WR)

Above Telephone Exchange
Thimphu, Bhutan
Fax: 23319, Tel: 22864, 22940

NEPAL
WHO Representative
UN Building, Pulchowk, Lalitpur
Kathmandu, Nepal
Fax: 527756, Tel: 523993

DPR KOREA
WHO National Programme Officer
The Ministry of Public Health
Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea
Pyongyang, DPR Korea

SRI LANKA

Fax: 3814416, Tel: 380288

WHO Representative
No. 135, Bauddhaloka Mawatha
Colombo-4, Sri Lanka
Fax: 502845, Tel: 502319(WR)

INDIA
WHO Representative
Room 533-35, A’ Wing Nirman Bhawan

New Delhi-110011, India
Fax: 3012450(WR),
Tel: 3018988 (Ext. 2507)

THAILAND
WHO Representative
Ministry of Public Health
Soi Bamrasnaradoon, Tiwanond Road,

INDONESIA

Nonthaburi 11000, Thailand
Fax: 5918199, Tel: 5918198

WHO Representative
UN Building, No. 14, Jalan M.H. Thamrin
Jakarta 10013, Indonesia
Fax: 323827, Tel: 3141308

M948
Ft 998
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

HEALTH FOR ALL: ALL FOR HEALTH

1998

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