The Topic is Adoption of School Health Program in Secondary Schools in Ilorin
CHAPTER ONE
Purpose of the Study
The motive of this discourse is geared towards investigating into the underlying causes which can likely affect the adoption of the school health program in Ilorin West Local government area of Kwara state. The study also intend to;
- Determine the awareness of the teachers and students towards the benefits of school health program in their schools.
- Examine whether there is availability of necessary equipment and facilities that will assist in realizing the outcomes of SHP.
- Investigate into the level of the government commitment towards the adoption of SHP in these schools.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter relevant conceptual and empirical literature are reviewed under the following dimensions:
- The Concept and Meaning of School Health Programme.
- Theoretical Framework – Social Support Theory (Barnes 1954)
- Teachers and students awareness of the Benefits
- Challenges in the adoption of school health programme.
- Roles Played by Government parastatals in the implementation of school health programme.
The Concept of School Health Programme
School Health Programme involves well-planned and organized learning experiences for the school children under the guidance and supervision of teachers or accredited health personnel. In addition to this, Akanni and Nkanginieme (2007) provided that its effectiveness depends on a number of factors such as: availability of instructional materials, skills and motivation of the instructor who may be the teacher or certified health personnel, use of appropriate teaching technique and the quality of the contents of the health instruction.
Drawing from the assertion of Taiwo (2012), school health programme (SHP) is an important component of the overall health care delivery system of any country. Next to the family, the school is the primary institution responsible for the development of young people all over the world. The school has direct contact with more than 95% of the nation’s young people aged 5–17 years, for about 6 hours a day, and for up to 13 critical years of their social, psychological, physical, and intellectual development. In a related study by Akani, Nkanginieme and Oruamabo (2001), ‘School age children (6-14 years) constitute about 23% of the population of the average Nigerian community. Although, largely dependent and not considered productive in terms of income generation, their health status and indices are used to determine a nation’s state of development’. Despite this, up to half of all school children in developing countries suffer from anemia with substantial evidence linking anemia with impaired cognitive abilities and school health programs in sub-Saharan Africa have continued to reveal obvious gaps in implementation of school policies.
Ajuwon and Brieger (2007) contributions was also valuable in ascertaining the advantages of an effective school health programme. When effectively managed, school health services have yielded significant contributions in school based health programs; health related interventions, feeding, smoking cessation program, in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in children and in detecting large citywide epidemics. The inter-related linkage between proper school health and academic performance, oral health and other long term outcomes and vice versa is therefore worthy of note and of paramount significance. Besides augmenting the care for the populace, research indicates that effective school health policy helps to increase school attendance and academic performance, decrease school drop-out rates (Bonell, Harden, Wells, Jamal, Fletcher and Petticrew 2011). In a study conducted in Bangladesh, a school sanitation project alone helped boost girls’ school attendance 11% per year, on average, from 1992 to 1999.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter describes the procedure and strategies that will be employed in the conduct of this research. The sub-headings include the research design, population, sample and sampling techniques, research instrument, reliability of the instrument, validity of the instrument and procedure for data collection and data analysis.
Research Design
The research design that will be adopted for gathering information for this research work will be descriptive survey. This method would be appropriate in carrying out the research work as it enables the researcher to describe through collecting, analyzing, and arriving at some conclusion and recommendation based on the data that was collected from the respondents through the use of questionnaire.
De Vaus (2006) summarized that research design refers to the overall strategy that you choose to integrate the different components of the study in a coherent and logical way, thereby ensuring you will effectively address the research problem; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement, and analysis of data.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction
This chapter is concerned with the analysis of the data obtained for the study, the presentation and the interpretation. Conclusively, the findings of the research were summarised.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
This chapter discusses the summary of the study, the conclusion as well as the recommendations of the study.
Summary
This study is a survey of school health programme and its adoption in public secondary schools in Ilorin west local government area of Kwara state. This study was divided into five chapters in which the first chapter is the introduction which comprises the scope of the study, the research questions raised, the objectives as well as the hypotheses.
The second chapter is the literature review. In this chapter, theories relating to the study were discussed, the concepts of school health program and also evidences of other related researchers were also reviewed in the ending section of this chapter.
In the third chapter, the method of data collection, research design, sampling technique as well as the method of data collection were indicated. However, the second to the last chapter presents the data analysis and interpretation. In this chapter, the data obtained were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical tools and were interpreted thereafter. The summary of findings concluded this chapter.
Conclusion
After the analysis and interpretation of the data collected, it was concluded that a healthful environment reduce truancy and morbidity rate in school and also that the awareness of teachers and students about the benefit inherent in school health program will significantly influence its adoption in public secondary schools.
This study also discovered that availability of adequate equipment and facilities to carry out school health program will significantly influence the adoption in secondary schools. It was deduced as well that government’s commitment will significantly influence the adoption of school health program in public secondary schools and it was finally concluded that the teacher’s knowledge about their roles in school health program will significantly influence the adoption in public secondary schools.
Recommendations
As proven in this research, the impact of school health program cannot be over-emphasized and also that the adoption rate of SHP in public secondary schools is low. Hence, it is recommended that;
- Government put in place to ensure SHP is installed in all government schools and at all levels and not necessarily secondary schools.
- Teachers should also ensure that they recognize their roles as the role models to the students as the students usually have the belief that whatever their teacher is doing is right. Hence, the more reason the teachers should be the primary advocator of SHP
- Government should ensure that adequate equipment facility to carry out school health program is provided so as to influence its adoption in secondary schools.
REFERENCES
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- According to the Trinity care foundation, (2015). Available on; http://trinitycarefoundation.org/preventive/school-health-program.Retrieved on 25th June, 2015.
- Ajuwon A.J, Brieger W.R., (2007) Evaluation of a school-based reproductive health education program in rural South Western, Nigeria. African Journal of Reproductive Health; 11 (2): 47-59.
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- Akani N.A, Nkanginieme KEO &Oruamabo R.S (2001).The School Health Programme: A Situational Revisit. Nigerian journal Paediatr; 28 (1): 1-6.
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