“No education system can be effective unless it promotes the health and well-being of its students, staff and community”
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus Director-General World Health Organization, Audrey Azoulay Director-General UNESCO
Health Promoting Schools have been recognised as a strategic vehicle to promote positive development and healthy behaviours such as physical activity, physical fitness, recreation and play, balanced nutrition, prevent tobacco use, and preventing being bullied. Even though the concept of Health Promoting Schools was articulated by World Health Organization (WHO), UNESCO and UNICEF back in 1992, only few countries have successfully implemented health promoting schools at scale. (WHO)
A health promoting school (HPS) is not one which demonstrates its ability to perform educational activities or special projects, and it is not a program that has a definitive beginning and end. It is also not one that provides ad hoc, one-off lessons in an attempt to teach students the meaning of health-related topics. In HPS, learning experiences from classroom health education lessons are reinforced by policies and practices in the school environment and parent and community sphere. For example, classroom sun protection lessons are reinforced and complemented by adequate provision of shade throughout the school and a school sun protection policy that informs parents and encourages students and staff to wear hats, sunscreen and appropriate clothing.
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/carers, 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 programs for staff, nutrition and food safety programs, relationships and sexuality education programs, opportunities for physical education and recreation, and programs for counselling, social support and mental health promotion
- implements policies and practices that respect an individual’s wellbeing and dignity, provides multiple opportunities for success, and acknowledges good efforts and intentions as well as personal achievements
- strives to improve the health of school personnel, families and community members as well as students; and works with community leaders to help them understand how the community contributes to, or undermines, health and education.
