JEDDAH, 17 January 2008 — In a two-day workshop that started Tuesday, the Ministry of Health discussed applying school health measures in most schools in the near future. The aim of the meeting was to come up with guidelines on evaluating health-promoting schools in the Kingdom.
Othman Al-Abd Al-Jabbar, deputy minister of education for school affairs, opened the workshop at the Holiday Inn Hotel. “The Ministry of Health has set a time plan to generalize the program in most schools in the Kingdom especially for the intermediate and high school. The program has so far been applied on 25 schools in Jeddah.
The Ministry of Education has stressed about this program and accredited in its 10-year-plan for some years. “The workshop stressed evaluating the effectiveness of this program and how it is being well implemented and discussing the possible obstacles.
The evaluation includes tools used to apply the program, the process of applying it and the outcomes,” said Dr. Sulaiman Al-Shihri, director of school health at the Ministry of Education.
Officials from different countries in the educational and health fields were present to tackle the issue from different perspectives. There were also representatives from the World Health Organization in Riyadh’s office and the council of health ministers in the GCC.
There are various criteria the program is based on. They include education about health, nutrition, promoting a healthy school environment, promoting mental health and counseling, and involving the family and society in the program. Each criterion is assessed on a scale of five. The grades then are calculated. A group of evaluators then visit the school for a pre-evaluation. The directorate afterward decides which schools are qualified to apply the program. Schools have to implement the program for three years at least. A year after that, the school will be evaluated. If they have applied 60 percent of the requirements, they will be on the bronze list. If 75 percent or more, they will be on the silver list and if 90 percent or more, they will be on the gold list. Schools can move to the next level by applying more activities for one year.
“We expect to have 30 schools around the Kingdom on the gold list by the end of this year,” said Al-Shihri.
Schools are evaluated on implementation for a whole year. Officials visit the schools and pre-evaluate them before they apply the program and check the result to compare the school’s situation afterward. The program has been implemented since last year in 25 schools in Jeddah.
