Nowadays, students encounter several health challenges. As they spend most of their time in the classroom, schools may have the opportunity to positively influence students’ quality of life, playing a crucial role in fostering their health. SHAECH EDITORIAL DESK explores why school is the ideal location for thepromotion of students’ wellbeing.
There have been various studies which concluded that school as primary educational institution, should integrate students’ health promotion in its ordinary teaching and learning practices in the perspective of “better health through better schools”.
The experts in the field and various international bodies working on the development of children, have uniformly stated that in the view of the holistic individual development, the primary commitment of school systems – along with students’ academic achievements – should be the improvement of children’s physical, mental and social wellbeing. “School may represent the optimal setting to display educational health-related interventions,as educators can have the opportunity to positively influence – day by day – students’ life-long learning and work to reduce health inequalities among young people,” said experts.
The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that health literacy should be incorporated in the core curriculum as children enter school, supported by a health-promoting school environment.A comprehensive school commitment towards students’ global wellbeing is expected to positively impact both children’s behaviours and their families.
A health promoting school is one that constantly strengthens its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working.
A health promoting school:
– Fosters health and learning with all the measures at its disposal.
– Engages health and education officials, teachers, teachers’ unions, students, parents, health providers and community leaders in efforts to make the school a healthy place.
– Strives to provide a healthy environment, school health education, and school health services along with school/community projects and outreach, health promotion programmes for staff, nutrition and food safety programmes, opportunities for physical education and recreation, and programmes for counselling, social support and mental health promotion.
– Implements policies and practices that respect an individual’s wellbeing and dignity, provide multiple opportunities for success, and acknowledge good efforts and intentions as well as personal achievements.
– Strives to improve the health of school personnel, families and community members as well as pupils; and works with community leaders to help them understand how the community contributes to, or undermines, health and education.
Health promoting schools focus on:
– Caring for oneself and others.
– Making healthy decisions and taking control over life’s circumstances.
– Creating conditions that are conducive to health (through policies, services, physical/social conditions).
– Building capacities for peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable ecosystem, equity, social justice, sustainable development.
– Preventing leading causes of death, disease and disability: helminths, tobacco use, HIV/AIDS/STDs, sedentary lifestyle, drugs and alcohol, violence and injuries, unhealthy nutrition.
– Influencing health-related behaviours: knowledge, beliefs, skills, attitudes, values, support.