3 examples of school health interventions that work
In Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Haiti, GPE-funded school health programs are increasing students’ participation in schools and improving learning.
April 13, 2018 by GPE Secretariat
|
5 minutes read
School girls sit outside on the school grounds to have lunch at a school in Ethiopia. Credit: GPE/Midastouch
School girls sit outside on the school grounds to have lunch at a school in Ethiopia.
Credit: GPE/Midastouch

April 7 was World Health Day and we have spent the week focusing on the crucial links between health and education. When health is at risk, so is learning. Poor health is a barrier to access and participation in school. In fact, in developing countries, an estimated 500 million school days are lost due to illness each year.

A new report by Disease Control Priorities, the World Bank, and GPE shows that schools are the perfect setting for tackling the health needs of children across all grades, leading to better and more equitable learning.

GPE is working with 52 partner developing countries to design and integrate school health interventions into education sector plans and is directly funding health activities in 22 countries. 

Below are 3 examples of successful school health programs, taken from a new factsheet on health and education.

Cambodia

In Cambodia, a 2010 survey showed that in rural areas, no children with visual impairment had glasses and 80% of visual impairment was due to uncorrected refractive error, a condition easily corrected by eyeglasses.

This resulted in absenteeism from school, increased dropout rates, reduced ability to learn, and eventually poor job prospects.

The Cambodian Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Planning, with support from GPE and other partners, developed a program to screen more than 13,000 children aged 11-15 years in 56 schools. Corrective lenses were provided for children found to have refractive error.

Now these children can fully participate in the classroom and the program is being scaled up to benefit even more children.

Ethiopia

GPE and partners helped build the capacity of the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia to design a comprehensive 5-year school health and nutrition strategy and action plan to improve children’s education in the country.

Teachers have been trained to deliver simple and effective health activities in schools, including deworming, vision screening and infectious disease prevention education.

These activities will help ensure no child is left out of school because of poor health and improve learning.

Haiti

Over 132,000 Haitian primary students receive a morning snack and hot lunch at school every day thanks to the Ministry of Education’s Health and Nutrition Program, funded by GPE and other development partners.

The meals constitute 60% of the students’ nutrition needs, and play a big part in making sure children continue to come to school. The program has led to increases in enrollments. The children are also given deworming medicine and Vitamin A as part of the program.

Can you imagine having to concentrate and learn on an empty stomach? In the words of one of the students, “Before the canteen opened, we would come to school and leave without having eaten. Now, we get food at school and feel good.”

In focus: School health

REPORT:

BLOGS:

INFOGRAPHIC:

FACTSHEET:

Related blogs

integre la sante ,et nuitrition a l education est une action tres figurative.il y a des enfants qui quittent la maison pour l ecoule et parcourir des kilomettres pour arriver le ventre affames et ils nont aucune chose a manger a leur retour.pour la sante de certains eleves c est pitoyable.si vous prenez 1000 ecoles au togo a peine vous trouvrez 15 imfimeries

As apart of my global health requirement for my Batchelor degree in Nursing, I am researching secondary education for girls in Haiti. It was informative your 3 examples of school interventions that work. I enjoyed the video.

The outcome of negative lifestyles and practices, including environmental degradation and pollution has exposed human to various forms of diseases and disasters. My name is Lancelot Ebegbulem,I'm a serving Nigerian soldier and a 300 level student of the department of Environmental Health,Nigerian Army School of Medical Sciences Ojo Lagos State, Nigeria. I'm the founder of "Society For Public and Environmental Health" a youth-led and Non-Governmental organization that promotes public and environmental health education in secondary schools and tertiary institutions within my community,such as advocacy for female genital mutilation,sexual and reproductive health,quit smoking campaigns, indiscriminate waste disposal,HIV/AIDS awareness and environmental pollution. We believe that through health education, individuals and families in the community will be guided and informed about the negative effects and health implications of their lifestyles and practices,thereby reducing the number of health related cases and deaths arising from these practices, including disasters.
Pls I will like to partner with you inorder to reach out to numerous young girls and boys who are out of school in my community due to health related challenges.

Bonjour,

Je voudrais faire partager un véritable désespoir qui me saisit quand je constate qu'il n'est jamais question de la base en matière de santé.
Comment un arbre pourrait-il avoir une longue vie avec des racines malform"es ? Pour un ùmammifère, un humain surtout, les racines saines deviennent souvent des racines malformées/féformées pendant la petite enfance (dès la conception).

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Plain text

  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.