ABUJA – The ongoing review of the National School Health Policy document is 50 per cent completed, an official of the Federal Ministry of Education has said.
Mr Dada Olajide, the Desk Officer, School Health Education of the ministry, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja yesterday.
Olajide said the review of the policy was imperative to accommodate global trends and promote development in the education sector.
“The policy was originally implemented in 2006 and should be reviewed every five years to comply with global trends and meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard for schools.
“The policy is aimed at implementing child friendly school environment by assigning responsibilities and roles to relevant stakeholders.’’
He said that WHO standard states that water facilities must be gender segregated (different facilities for boys and girls).
He said that two of the four processes involved in the review of the document individual stakeholders review and the national stakeholders’ workshop had already been done.
He added that the national policy review was at the level of final stakeholder analysis before implementation.
According to him, four new guidelines have been generated to be included in the document as part of the upgrade.
They include School Feeding, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes in schools, School Health Services and School-based Deworming and Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
The official said that the four guidelines would cover all areas not previously included in the policy.
Olajide told journalists that the national policy had all the institutions both tertiary and basic accommodated in it and expressed hope that the review would be completed by the end of 2015, if funds were available.
“Everything depends on the release of money to fund the completion of the review, but I am hoping that by the end of this year, it will be completed.’’