Health and wellness: Positive schooling in offing

For the first time, a comprehensive module for school health and wellness with various themes will be launched for the State-run schools in Tamil Nadu, to create awareness about positive health behaviours among school children in government and government-aided schools.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that during the first phase, the programme will be launched in five districts such as Vellore, Ariyalur, Karur, Ramanathapuram, and Virudhunagar in collaboration with the State’s National Health Mission.

He said Tamil Nadu State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has been entrusted to develop video content initially for 11 themes including providing appropriate information about health and nutrition to the children in schools.

“In addition, the scheme will also promote healthy behaviours among the children that they will inculcate for life,” he said adding similarly, the project will also detect and treat diseases early in children and adolescents including identification of malnourished and anaemic children with appropriate referrals to PHCs and hospitals.

Stating that the SCERT will upload the themes in the Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Platform portal for the teachers to view them and learn the content, he said “the theme will also promote the use of safe drinking water in schools and also safe menstrual hygiene practices”.

The official also said that in each school two or three teachers will be identified as health and wealth messengers/ambassadors and they would talk to children over the themes of health every week throughout the academic year. “They (teachers) will identify and encourage research on health, wellness, and nutrition for children”.

Pointing out that the health and wellness scheme will be extended to other districts, the official said before launching the programme, online training for the State’s resource group comprising of SCERT and District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) faculty members and personnel of the Health Department will be organised by national-level experts.

He said to enhance the scheme in the future, the authorities were also planning to develop an electronic health record for each child, who will be provided with a health card that would include health screening and service access data for every student.