Bridging Health and Education via School Health Education in Pakistan: A Case Study of Rawalpindi

Abstract

Health and education are two important sectors that can determine a country’s development. Pakistan is a developing nation that has invested a lot of money in providing its people with better health and educational facilities. It is better to provide awareness among citizens to take care of their health rather than huge investments in curing the diseases. Students’ health has a positive impact on their learning abilities, and once they are aware of the healthy habits taught in schools, they can become healthy students and can achieve better in academics. The main purpose of this research is to examine the status of health education in public schools and to locate the ways through which health is promoted, via schools as a platform. The study examined five different elements of school health education: Personal Health and Life skills, Healthy school environment, Health and Nutrition Services, Disease control and prevention, School-community Partnership. The quantitative research method was employed using a survey strategy of school teachers. The study depicts the prevalence of health education components, with varying degree, in both primary and secondary schools. The Independent sample t-test was used to analyze the variances and mean differences between the groups.  The statistics have shown that in urban and rural areas, schools undergo similar practices regarding health education. A separate policy to bridge health and education in the form of school health education has been recommended to provide the basic guidelines for the authorities to take actions to foster students’ learning capabilities.

Keywords: school health education, health promotion programs, personal health and life skills, healthy school environment.

https://doi.org/10.55463/issn.1674-2974.49.8.11