School health programs

Department of Global Oral Health
College of Dental Sciences
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre

Department of Global
Oral Health

School health programs

Schools are a very appropriate starting point for preventive action in health and behaviour. During the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, the WHO agreed with UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank to cooperate on promoting and implementing health programmes in schools. As a guideline, they launched the Focusing Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH) framework, which recommends focusing on interventions that can be implemented everywhere, even in resource-poor schools of low- and middle-income countries.

Education is the backbone of development in any given country; and in order to be really fit for school, children need to be healthy first. Those who suffer poor health cannot concentrate or actively participate in school. Healthy children, on the other hand, attend school more regularly and can benefit fully from what the education system has to offer. School health programmes therefore have the potential to link resources for education, health, nutrition and sanitation at one venue: the school. The school system ideally reaches a large proportion of the child population between 6 and 12 years of age.

Read more about the prize winning Fit for School program