How to promote health through schools?

Many of today's and tomorrow's leading causes of death, disease and disability can be significantly reduced by preventing behavior that is initiated during youth, through health education, understanding and motivation; and fostered by social and political policies and conditions. Healthy systems and practices should be initiated from the schools



Encourage schools fostering health

What is a "school fostering health"?

A "school fostering health" is one that constantly strengthens its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working.

A school fostering health:

• Fosters health and learning with all the measures at its disposal.
• Engages health and education officials, teachers, teachers' unions, students, parents, 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 programmes for staff, nutrition and food safety programmes, opportunities for physical education and recreation, and programmes for counselling, social support and mental health promotion.
• Implements policies and practices that respect an individual's well being and dignity, provide multiple opportunities for success, and acknowledge good efforts and intentions as well as personal achievements.
• Strives to improve the health of school personnel, families and community members as well as pupils; and works with community leaders to help them understand how the community contributes to, or undermines, health and education.

Schools fostering health focus on:

• Caring for oneself and others
• Making healthy decisions and taking control over life's circumstances
• Creating conditions that are conducive to health (through policies, services, physical / social conditions)
• Building capacities for education, food, income, a stable ecosystem, equity, social justice, sustainable development.
• Preventing leading causes of death, disease and disability: infection, tobacco use, , sedentary lifestyle, drugs and alcohol, unhealthy nutrition.
• Influencing health-related behaviors: knowledge, beliefs, skills, attitudes, values, support.