EYE SCREENING AND HEALTH EDUCATION AND THE MONITORING OF ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATION IN EBONYI STATE



INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND
            Records of research findings abound in Nigeria that has implicated some common preventable diseases as contributory factors to irregular school attendance which eventually culminates in poor achievement by Basic Education Pupils. As a government response to that, the National Health Policy (NSHP) was drawn. It is the Federal Government Policy objectives in the implementation of school health programme. The NSHP is a health support service in the school that guarantees good health for staff and pupils in order to ensure that academic activities in schools go as planned (FME and FMOH 2006). The need for the NSHP is in realization of the obvious consideration by government that health is basic in any human endavour. 


            As such achieving Basic Education for all will be a mirage if there is no guarantee for sound health for both pupils and staff members of the school community. Without sound health, there will be no effective teaching and learning in the school. Indeed there is no gain stressing the obvious fact that school health program synergizes efforts in implementation of the national policy on education.
            The main goal of the national school health policy as stated by government is to improve the health of learners and staff as responsible and productive citizens.

The NSHP has six components. They include:
1.         Healthful school environment
2.         School feeding services
3.         Skill-based health education
4.         School health services
5.         School, home and community relationship
            Researches conducted in Nigeria painted gloomy picture of state of Basic Education in Nigeria especially as it concerns school health programmes in the schools.
            For instance, the 1997, 2003, 2006 monitoring of learning achievement (MLA), the Situation Assessment and Analysis (SAA) of 2001 and the 1992 Situation Analysis and Policy Assessment (SAPA) independently lamented on the child unfriendliness of Nigerian public schools. In Ebonyi state, the 2010 State Education Sector Plan (SESP) and State Education Operational Plan (SESOP) jointly confirmed these earlier studies that Ebonyi state is not spared of the poor state of health program in Education sector.

            UNICEF in her magnanimity in assisting state realized the need to do something urgently to alleviate this problem, organized this training workshop in collaboration with the state Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB). After each day’s training a monitoring visit was organized to schools to monitor the teachers implement the actual salt testing and eye screening. This has gone a long way to open the minds and eyes of school authorities on the need for them to do something in order to take care of their own health, and also assist the pupils in taking care of their health. This is to ensure healthy living that will support regular school attendance, understanding of what is being taught in the school and eventually rise in the learning outcome of the learners.

Planned Results
-              School children’s health status available for planning
-              Teachers and Education managers have tools, knowledge and skills to monitor and promote health in schools.
-              Partnership between schools, parent and community enhanced in monitoring and promotion of health status of learners. 

Methodology Employed
            The training was highly participatory. The resource persons used both plenary and group work. A pretest was administered on the participants before the training and a post test was also administered at the end of the training. There was a mean gain in the knowledge of the participants as the mean in the pretest was 15.69 and the mean of the post test was also 37.17 some schools were visited each day after the training, where the teachers were monitored to actually implement what they had learnt. 

ACHIEVEMENTS
1.   Teachers’ Skills built on school health and they now support the pupils on practicing good health.
2.   Schools keep health records of each pupil and assist them access health services in order to reduce school absenteeism and low achievement.
3.    There is now a link between school and public owned health facilities in the community. 

CONSTRAINTS
1.         The one day that was ear marked for monitoring was not enough to enable the team visit all the schools and monitor the teachers implement the programme.
2.         To monitor the teachers the following day after completing the actual training was not the best option, as the teachers did not have the opportunity to inform the pupils to come to school with salt samples for testing for iodine.
3.         Insufficient iodine testing kits hindered some school from participating in the actual testing for the iodine in the salt
         
WAY FORWARD
-              There should be at least three (3) days that should be earmarked for the actual monitoring.
-              The test kit should be supplied to state based on the number of schools the training is targeting.
-              Some day’s gap should be given after the training before conducting the actual monitoring.
-              Provision should be made for a continuous and systematic monitoring of the health screening in order to make it part and parcel of the school programme.
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