Knowledge And Awareness Of School Health Program Among Secondary School Teachers In Jalingo

Abstract

This research work was carried out to assess the knowledge and awareness of school health program among secondary school teachers in Jalingo Taraba state. The expost facto research design and descriptive survey (a non-experimental) method of research was used. The population for the study was three hundred and seventy-five (375) respondents which was mainly on student in secondary schools in Jalingo. The instrument used for data collection was a self-structured and validated questionnaire, the demographic characteristics of the respondents were analyzed using frequencies (F) and percentages (%). The research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient (PPMC) was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Based on the result of the data analyzed and discussed, it could be concluded as follows: School health programs are available in most of the schools in Jalingo. There exist also, school health guidance and supervision team which help to monitor the health status of students. School health services which include the nutritional programmes that promote the nutritional level of students in school were equally available in schools. The following recommendations were made: Government should encourage the establishment of more school health services in schools. Conducive environment and opportunity should be given to health officers in schools to attend training programmes to improve their health knowledge. School health facilities should be monitored by the school authorities for proper use by the students.

Table of Content

Preliminary Page(s)

Title Page
Declaration
Approval
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of Content

Chapter One

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Research Hypothesis
1.6 Significance of the Study
1.7 Definition of Terms
1.8 Organization of Study

Chapter Two

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Meaning of Health
2.3 Origin of School Health Services
2.4 The Concept of School Health Services
2.5 Global View of School Health Services
2.6 Development of School Health Services
2.7 Purpose of School Health Services
2.8 The Provision of School Health Services
2.9 General Prevention and Control of Communicable and Non- Communicable Diseases
2.10 Treatment of Common Ailment and First Aid Services in Schools
2.11 Health Education and Health Promotion Programme in Schools
2.12 The School Health Services

Chapter Three

3.0 Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Target Population
3.4 Sample Size and Sampling Procedure
3.5 Instrument for Data Collection
3.6 Validity of Instrument
3.7 Administration of Questionnaire
3.8 Procedure for Data Analysis

Chapter Four

4.0 Results and Discussions

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Results
4.3 Discussion

Chapter Five

5.0 Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation

5.1 Summary
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendations
References
Appendix

Chapter One

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

Health is acclaimed the “key to life” good health is more basic than all other essential things of life and living therefore good health must be given the first and highest priority (Edungbola, 1983). Irrespective of age school children require regular medical attention both at home and in their learning environment. Regular cases of ill-health among school children due to malnutrition, dehydration and out break of diseases have been on the increase in most parts of the world particularly in most part of developing nation like Nigeria (UNICEF, 2000).

In Nigeria half of the deaths is occuring among children in primary and post-primary schools, (National Health Policy 2006) the infections responsible for this high infant and young child death rates are diarrhea disease, which is caused by a combination of poor drinking water and poor hygiene practices. From all indications, it clearly shows that lack of sufficient health services and safe water are responsible for the high morbidity and mortality rates in Nigeria (WHO,1946).

The World Health Organization (WHO (1946) defined health as “a state of complete physical mental, and social well-being of an individual, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Health is much more than merely not being sick

in bed and there are levels of wellness as well as illness among individual in the society (Thuner, 1984).
Health in a holistic form is concerned with promoting the maximum physical, social, emotional, and educational growth of individuals especially children in a learning environment who deserve to have a good health education, http://www/cata.wba (2007).

Iliya (2000), observed that the entire school interest is on the school health services which encompasses various actions in conjunction with the health personnel in a learning environment to promote the highest possible level of health of the school children through out their years of study. It is very essential that school children should be physically well, mentally alert, emotionally and socially stabilized. Igwe (2000), is of the opinion that an emotional school environment that seek to promote the health of school children should encompass a healthful day, school feeding services, school safety programme, good aesthetic environment and good teacher /student relationship.
The organization of healthful school day entails conducive time which should not over stretch the teachers themselves, the provision of home grown and feeding programme of the school should be prepared in a hygienic environment and with good balance diet from a qualitative food material. Good food that is balanced will automatically build and maintain the physiological functioning of the body (Abanobi and Ewuzie, 2000).

Good aesthetic environment contributes to positive emotion to both school students and their teachers; with good design of the school building and location will provide adequate ventilation and avoid over crowding.

According to Ayodele (1995), teachers act as surrogate parents to student this is made possible when teacher strictly monitors the activities of the student. For an individual to be mentally healthy and act effectively and relate well, such an individual needs to stay in a healthy emotional environment (Okafor 1998). The teaching and learning process can only be achieved only when teachers and students dwell in a good environment.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The health of students at all levels of education is very important to the school health services. Anderson and Creswell (1980) believed that health in the school system is an outgrowth for the general search for more effective and more enjoyable living.

School health services therefore, refer to the health care delivery system that is made available within the school primarily to promote, protect and maintain the health status of students.

The establishment of school health services if properly planned will lead to effective monitoring of the health of the students. Cases of child motility are so rampant in schools due to the prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases in schools. The school authority has a task in ensuring that adequate school health services are provided to students to reduce the rate of student absenteeism and truancy due to ill-health, such as: nutritional, emotional, mental, physical and psychological problems.

The achievement of good health status of school children according to Sofoluwel et al (1998), is largely dependent upon the provision of adequate school health services. School health services which cannot be given to students without the involvement of quality school health personnel helps to improve students fallen academic performance. The provision of Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme made it compulsory for most Nigerian children to attend schools which eventually increased the population explosion. Basically, the success of school children, is largely dependent on their level of mental and emotional stability. Health status of students play a significant role in the area of periodic inspection of student body to detect any health problem. The environmental cleanliness in the school by the student has alot to play in ensuring that students maintain high level of hygiene within and outside the school environment.

Ideally, it is the ultimate responsibility of the school services which is an integral part of the entire school health program to provide some clinical facilities for the correction of any physical defect of the school children. It is quite obvious that students with health problem may have difficulty in learning while in school. Ken and Mirands (2002), assert that the health knowledge, attitude and practice of students are all attributes of the availability of school health services.

This study also focuses on the management processes and the effectiveness of the available school health services in schools. It is to this end that this study is intended to find out the knowledge and awareness of school health program among secondary school teachers in Jalingo Taraba state.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and awareness of school health program among secondary school teachers in Jalingo Taraba state. However, the primary concern of this research work is to achieve the following purpose:

To assess the level of knowledge of school health program among secondary school teachers in Jalingo.
To assess the level of awareness of school health programs among secondary school teachers in Jalingo.
To investigate if the school nutritional programmes would improve the health status of students in secondary schools in Jalingo.
To identify if the school medical assessment and health observation help to improve the health status of students in secondary schools in Jalingo.

1.4 Research Questions

Specifically, the research study intends to address the following:

What is the level of knowledge of school health program among secondary school teachers in Jalingo?
What is the level of awareness of school health programs among secondary school teachers in Jalingo?
Does the school health inspection for environmental cleanliness promote the health status of students in secondary schools in Jalingo?
In what way can the school medical assessment and health observation improve the health status of students in secondary schools in Jalingo?

1.5 Research Hypothesis

There is no significant difference between the availability of school health programs and the health status of students in secondary schools in Jalingo, Taraba state.

1.6 Significance Of The Study

The study was conducted on the following bases.

School health services are supposed to be made available in secondary schools in the Jalingo to monitor the health problems of students in these schools. But the nature and the extent to which these health services are provided in these schools are not actually well understood. In the final analysis, the result of this research work will show the quality and the level of school health services that is made available to the students.
In most cases, it is a general assumption and belief that schools that are situated in the urban areas are better provided with adequate school health services more than those secondary schools in the rural areas. The result of this study will justify if there are any significant relationship between the availability of schools health services on the health status of secondary school students in Jalingo. Also, the study will help the authority and other stakeholders that is concerned with providing health services to take adequate and appropriate measures to make provision for school health services in the post-primary schools of Jalingo.
More often than not, students in boarding schools are usually well provided with school health services those in the schools, all though from all indications no accurate investigation has been made so far as regards this, but this study will equally ascertain the level of health services that are provided in boarding secondary schools in Jalingo.
This study will bring to focus new areas that are needed for further researches that are related to school health services.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Knowledge:

The facts known about school health programs

Awareness:

The level of cognizance of a phenomenon, in this case, school health programs

Health Status:

This is regarded as the present state of health condition.

Public Health:

Health issue that involve a large number of people in a geographical area.

School Health Programs:

This is an essential health or medical services provided for the school children to maintain an optimum health status.

1.8 Organization of Study

The study comprises of 5 chapters. In chapter one, the concepts are introduced and the problem of the study is established with the research objectives and questions. Chapter two presents the literature review while chapter three presents the research methodology. The fourth chapter presents the results and discussion, and the last chapter presents the conclusion and recommendation.

Chapter Five

5.0 Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation

5.1 Summary

This study, investigated the knowledge and awareness of school health program among secondary school teachers in Jalingo Taraba state. Structured questionnaire was used as instrument to collect some useful information from the respondents on the school health programs. The questionnaire contains two parts A and B. Part A contains demographic characteristics of the respondents. Part B contains information on school health programs. The five points of Likert Scale was used, where the respondents indicated their degree of agreement or disagreement to the statement as: SA- Strongly Agree – (5), A- Agree – (4), UD- Undecided- (3), D- Disagree- (2), SD- Strongly- Disagree (1), A total of 375 subjects were sampled randomly from the population of secondary schools in Jalingo, to serve as respondents in this study. The questionnaire was thus, duly completed and submitted A total of was 245 questionnaire were statistically analyzed using frequency and percentage. For the demographic characteristics of the respondents, means and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient (PPMC) was used to test the hypothesis postulated. A number of research questions and hypothesis were formulated which were subjected to a statistical analysis. It was revealed that the school health program were significantly correlated with the health status of students.

5.2 Conclusion

On the basis of the result presented in the subsequent chapters, the following conclusions was drawn:

The availability of school health program have been so insufficient to cope with frequent cases of explosion of epidemic diseases among school children.
A proper school health program that embraces the health counselling of students by health personnel is not significantly sufficient to meet up with the health status of students.
The follow-up services in which the school health staff with the co-operation of parent and community agencies in securing correction of remediable defects are not sufficiently available for the students.
School children are often associated with under nourishment, malnutrition, dental pains, emotional disturbances, vision and hearing deficiencies, skin infections and other related diseases it is as a result of poor health knowledge and bad health habit and practices.
The general administration of school health services in various schools are more cumbersome this is as a result of the numerous school health problems in most of the public boarding secondary schools in Jalingo.

5.3 Recommendations

On the basis of the findings of the research study, the following recommendations are made:

School health education programme should be made available as part of the school extra-curricular activities to create adequate awareness on the available health services in the school environment since it was observed that some students do not actually recognize the importance of school medical examination.
The various school authority should ensure that regular supply of some medical equipment like measurement scale, growth chart, thermometer, sickbay, equipped first aid boxes are supplied to their school for regular medical examination of the students.
Qualified medical health personnel should be encouraged to carry out routine medical examination of students and further referrals, should be made when necessary for further medical attention.
The government should encourage schools to have a nearby health clinic for any emergency cases as this study showed that some of the secondary schools do not have school clinics.
The government should encourage schools to include school health day into their school programme to enlighten the students on the importance of healthy living.

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