SALALAH, MAY 6 - The central team for health evaluation in schools called for focus on healthy school environment, awareness about health services, nutrition, food safety, physical activity and mental health during its visit to schools in Dhofar. While exhorting the students to adopt healthy lifestyle, the team put equal stress on the health of workers to achieve the overall goal of healthy family and healthy society in the Sultanate. The members of central team for health evaluation in schools comprise representatives both from ministries of health and education to make it an inclusive and goal-oriented process.
The team took stock of healthcare and awareness standards among students and staff of schools in Hadbeen, Ajidrot, Raysut, and Sa’ada Girls School. It expressed satisfaction over general health awareness, but put stress on lifestyle changes and including physical activity in daily routine. Students were also advised to take nutrition seriously and were advised to understand what they were eating. Avoiding junk food was the call from all the team members. Dr Khalid al Mushekhi, Director-General of Health Service in Dhofar, joined the team in the field visit and called ‘health evaluation in schools’ an important initiative to link health as an important ingredient of education.
“We want to inculcate habit of keeping good health from the very beginning. That is why we chose to do an evaluation and based on the reports we do necessary follow up. We use teachers and students as important tools of our health awareness goals,” said Dr al Mushekhi. The evaluation initiative, according to Dr Al Mushekhi, is hugely successful due to direct link between the schools and community. A number of projects and their implementation status in schools were discussed by project supervisors in these schools.
They also discussed the theoretical and practical aspects of all the components of health promotion among schoolchildren. According to an official of the Ministry of Health, the process of health evaluation in schools began in 2004-2005 in all the governorates of the Sultanate. Then there were 19 schools covered under this programme. By the end of the academic year 2017-2018, some 486 health-enhancing schools have been established.
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