2 July 2009
MINISTER of Education Dora Siliya has called for enhanced nutrition among school-going children.
Speaking when she launched the school health and nutrition month at Ng'ombe Basic School in Lusaka yesterday, Ms Siliya said good health was critical to education.
She said good health and nutrition were a necessary component of a comprehensive learning environment.
"School health and nutrition focuses on maximising the needs of students to ensure positive learning outcomes with support from school feeding, deworming and bilharzia control," she said.
The minister said the state of a learner's health, nutrition and environment were among the factors that determined how much one could concentrate in and outside a classroom.
She said it was against that background that the ministry was spreading health and nutrition information to the rest of the country for the benefit of school-going children .
Ms Siliya said the ministry was aware that a child's ability to learn was mostly compromised by parasitic infections and nutrition deficiency diseases, hence the introduction of the school health and nutrition programme (SHN).
"This programme has led to greater learning outcomes through improved pupil retention, enrolment and attendance," she said.
She called on other ministries to work closely with the Ministry of Education to improve children's health around the country.
And Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Velepi Mtonga said the establishment of effective partnerships was important for the country to have healthy children.
In a speech read for her by the public health director Victor Mukonka, Dr Mtonga said there was need for the Ministry of Education to pool efforts with her ministry in order to attain the SHN objectives.
And a pupil from Ng'ombe Basic School said the SHN programme would enable more pupils to stay longer in school unlike the current situation where children dropped out of school due to poverty.
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