Surveys have significantly shown that the health programmes conducted in school is crucial for the students who play a ginormous role in the development of society. Notably the requirement of frequent health programmes are vital for students as much as academic role. For instance, spreading awareness regarding healthy lifestyle , fitness of mental health is important . According to a report released by world health organisation, such activities are also needed for the enhancement of skills among the teachers who are in charge of handling health and development problems among children.
Notwithstanding the fact that schools are the second home for children to gain knowledge and academic excellence reasonably they must be taught the reality that good health facilitate in lifelong learning, and wellbeing. With more children than ever receiving a formal education, schools are an efficient way to reach the youth and ensure the individual growth of them through valuable health programmes. It is a place where both education and health programmes can create their greatest impact because they can reach the young youth at an influential age. Not only that but at that age often such programmes are needed to soothe the stressful minds and manage the emotions and create a feeling of mental wellbeing.
It is often highlighted by education experts that around 30-40% of teens avoid school because they find schools tedious. Hence, persuasively , health programmes are important activities which can make the learning system fun and can be a leverage in improving the attendance of children . Health programmes can have various sub branches .Therefore giving examples, necessity of having a well balanced diet and regular exercise and in identification of psychological problems among school children ,including substance abuse otherwise known as awareness of drugs.to give an illustration regarding this, almost 85% of kids experience bullying at least once in their life and 30% becomes victims of drugs . Health programmes can provide them with assertive responses they should bring in those kind of situation. Nevertheless, bullying and drug intake is often a result of unorganised emotions and aggression mostly by adolescents , This can also be subconsciously be reduced by schools taking initiative to help them through health awareness sessions most preferably conducted by professionals.
Psychological problems such as depression and suicide ,self harming and feeling unloved are critical mental health conditions which most adolescents experience and unfortunately due to lack of guidance and importance given to them, most teens fail to handle them resulting them to a bad end .all such things considered we know the cruciality of health and beneficial programmes carried out in school. Many of these issues are developed in many countries and thus risk affecting all the adults of tomorrow. For these reasons ,health of students deserves more attention than it has ever got in the past .Moreover, if schools don’t take responsibilities to such important things the youth of the country will eventually fail to take a good care of themselves as well as the country .However,from primary grades to higher secondary education children’s age is a good time when health related knowledge ,skills, attitudes and values can be firmly acquired. Furthermore it is an assertive period of time where continues opportunities for healthy personal development and public health interventions can be created.
Today an enormous number of students are suffering from various diseases caused due to unhealthy lifestyle and imbalanced diets. They are often not being warned or given awareness of the health risks and this attribute to a careless stressful academic and regular life. Around 30 to 40% of youth are having health conditions like obesity or diseases like marasmus, anaemia due to malnutrition .It can lead to serious health issues, stunted growth and heart diseases .Hence through health programmes in school parents can be given a slight idea and awareness about these issues. Highlighting the issue obesity it is often caused due to excessive unhealthy eating . Some people intake food as a solution to manage their stressful life and this leads to obesity . If schools conduct various activities for all the students to give them information of different food types and benefits of eating those as well as have programmes where they can give children healthy food and involve them in physical activities often , these kind of problems will reduce greatly.
Schools can come up with productive ideas like installing food stalls where they can sell fruits and vegetables ,conduct games relevant to physical and mental health. Notwithstanding the fact that Studies indicate that across the world millions of children are forced to seek employment outside the family. Thus many children can be found in hazardous industries , working long without any rest and conditions that are physically and mentally dangerous. And regrettably a very less amount of data is recorded in most regions of the world that are aggregated to describe health status of young people mostly because the were given less importance during school phase. There for schooling , alone has been shown to be a powerful way to influence health worldwide .Its impact may be clearly seen in benefits to child health.
Some of the best opportunities in positively influencing the health of young people and in preventing the initiation of the health risk behaviours are found in the school setting. The school is an extraordinary place through which to improve the health of students teachers and the community as well .It is a means to support the basic human rights of both education and health. Furthermore, all schools no matter how scarce their resources are can help students and staff to learn to care for themselves and others, make decisions and create conditions that are conducive to their health.
In 1995 world health organisation convened a meeting with experts to encourage health institutions and agencies to coordinate their efforts to promote health through schools . And to make recommendations to enable schools to use their full potential to improve the health of young people.All things considered , we have got a clear insight into the importance of promoting health programmes in school.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Health and Academic Achievement
- National Center for Biotechnology Information – The Importance of School Health Programs
- Education World – Should schools be responsible for student health?
- PubMed – The impact of a comprehensive school physical activity program on student health attitudes, behaviors, and fitness
- KidsHealth – School Problems