Institute of Medicine

Central Department of Public Health

Health Promoting School

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Prepared by:
3. Abinash Poudel
35. Sneha Bhatta
Table of content
• Introduction
• Principle of Health Promoting School
• Goal and Objectives
• Activities for Health Promoting School
• Strengths and Challenges of the approach
• Importance 2

• Reference
 Introduction
• A health-promoting school (HPS) is one that constantly strengthens
its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working.
(WHO)
• HPS promote health through six pillars: a school’s policies, physical
environment, social environment, health curriculum, involvement
with community and health services. (Global Standards and
Indicators for Health Promoting Schools, 2020)
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• WHO promotes school health programs as a strategic means to

prevent important health risks among youth and to engage the
education sector in efforts to change the educational, social,
economic and political conditions that affect risk.
 History
 WHO’s Global School Health Initiative,
launched in 1995, seeks to mobilize and
strengthen health promotion and education
activities at the local, national, regional and
global levels.
 The goal of WHO’s Global School Health
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Initiative is to increase the number of schools

that can truly be called “Health-Promoting
Schools”.
History
 The general direction of WHO’s Global School Health
Initiative is guided by the Ottawa Charter for Health
Promotion (1986); the Jakarta Declaration of the Fourth
International Conference on Health Promotion (1997); and the
WHO’s Expert Committee Recommendation on
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Comprehensive School Health Education and Promotion

(1995).
 Principles of health promoting school
 Fosters health and learning with all the measures at its disposal.
 Engages health and education officials, teachers, teacher’s unions,
students, parents, health providers and community leaders in effort
to make the school a healthy place.
 Strives to provide a healthy environment, school health education,
and school health services along with school/community projects
and outreach, health promotion programmes for staff, nutrition and
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food safety programmes, opportunities for physical education and

recreation, and programmes for counselling, social support and
mental health promotion.
Principle of health promoting school
 Implements policies and practices that respect an
individual's wellbeing and dignity, provide multiple
opportunities for success, and acknowledge good efforts and
intentions as well as personal achievements.
 Strives to improve the health of school personnel, families
and community members as well as pupils; and works with
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community leaders to help them understand how the

community contributes to, or undermines, health and
education.
Goal
The goal of a health-promoting school is to create a
safe and supportive environment that promotes the
physical, social, and emotional health of school
personnel, families, and community members.

The goal of WHO's Global School Health Initiative is

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to increase the number of schools that can truly be

called "Health-Promoting Schools"
Vision
Make every school a health promotion school

Key objectives
• Generate scientific evidence on effective HPS interventions
and standards
• Produce a set of global standards for HPS based on the
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scientific review, which can be adapted to low and middle-

income countries and high-income countries and contexts
(crisis/war/disaster settings)
Key objectives
• Develop a common monitoring and evaluation framework for
the standards
• Develop a guidance resource for the implementation of the
standards based on the scientific review
• Avail a web-platform for the HPS standards
• Technical support for Member States in the adaptation and
application of global standards for HPS
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Activities of Health-promoting school
Global context
Eight global standards for health-promoting school
• Government policies and resources
• School policies and resources
• School governance and leadership
• School and community partnership
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• School curriculum
• School social-emotional environment
• School physical environment
• School health services
Target users
1. Members of the school community (school management,
teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils, parents, school boards
and educational NGOs/charities)
2. Organizations and government agencies concerned with child
and adolescent health. These may include UN organizations,
Ministries of Health, Ministries of Education, parent
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organizations, etc.
Key deliverables
1. A list of core set of global standards that can be adapted to the
country/setting context
2. Implementation guidance to support the adaptation and
operationalization of the standards to country/setting context
3. A web platform will be further developed to support
implementation 13

4. A monitoring and evaluation framework to support the

integration of the web platform
5. Capacity building of Member States to apply the standards to
make every school a health promoting school
National context
• The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), in
collaboration with the Ministry of Education, has developed a
National School Health and Nutrition Strategy in 2006.

• This strategy focuses on promoting the Health-Promoting

Schools (HPS) approach nationwide to address key health
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challenges faced by Nepalese children, including malnutrition,

poor hygiene, and communicable diseases.
 National context
• The School Health and Nutrition (SHN)
program aims to improve the overall
well-being of school children in Nepal,
covering physical, mental, emotional,
and educational aspects.
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• Major activities include biannual school

deworming and weekly Iron Folic Acid
(IFA) supplementation for girls aged 10-
19 years.
UNICEF Nepal/2022/RUpadhayay
National context
• In Nepal, various stakeholders, including the government,
INGOs, NGOs, support and promote health initiatives in
schools. Examples include physical activity programs like
sports days, fitness classes, and yoga, as well as healthy eating
initiatives such as offering nutritious food in school canteens
and prohibiting junk food.
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• In Nepal, health education is integrated into the curriculum,

covering topics like healthy eating, physical activity, yoga,
WASH, ASRH, STDs, mental health, school health programs,
GBV education, and disaster preparedness.
National context
• Few more initiatives are incorporated for Health-promoting
school,
- Child clubs mobilization
- One school, One nurse program
- Mid-day meal program
- Sanitary pad distribution
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- School health and nutrition program

Strength and challenges of health promoting school
Strengths
• Positive changes in students’ nutritional behaviors, hygiene
practices, and life skills.
• Ensuring effective collaboration and partnerships among schools,
communities, and stakeholders to support health promotion
activities.
• Promotes healthy habits and cleanliness in both educational and
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non-educational settings
• Access to health services
• Improved academic performance and education outcome
• Production of healthy and skilled human resources
Strength and challenges of health promoting school
Challenges
• Lack of coordination (intersectoral & intra-sectoral)
• Problems in policy making and rule formulation (Fathi et al., 2014)
• Lack of resources: financial, human resource and infrastructural
• Lack of monitoring and evaluation
• Limited community involvement 19

• Corruption and poor governance

• Resistance to change
• Limited teacher training
• Failure in implementation
Importance
• Enhance students’ well-being by fostering
healthy habits.
• Contribute to improved academic
performance, attendance, and concentration
among students.
• Work to reduce health inequalities by
ensuring equitable access to resources and
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support.
• Empower students to take ownership of their
health through education and skill
development.
 Importance
• Foster community engagement and partnerships to leverage
resources and support.
• Health promoting schools lay the foundation for lifelong health and
well-being, reducing the risk of chronic diseases
• Establishes the ownership of school and community towards health
of children and adolescents.
• Elevate the collaboration, support and coordination among local
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bodies. (SHNP Implementation Guide 2nd Edition, 2068)

 References
• World Health Organization, Health promoting schools . Available at:
https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-promoting-schools (Accessed: 21 February 2024).
• Global standards for health promoting schools (No date). Available at:
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/health-promoting-schools/global-standards-for-
health-promoting-schools-who-unesco.pdf?sfvrsn=251c2d0c_2.
• World Health Organization (2018). Global Standards for Health Promoting Schools.
• HNP_Joint Action Plan_2071-72 to 076-77 (n.d.). [Cited February, 2024], from
https://km.mohp.gov.np/sites/default/files/2018-07/5%20SHNP_Joint%20Action%20Plan_2
071-72%20to%20076-77_English.pdf 22

• Fathi, B., Allahverdipour, H., Shaghaghi, A., Kousha, A., & Jannati, A. (2014). Challenges in
Developing Health Promoting Schools’ Project: Application of Global Traits in Local Realm
[Text/html]. Health Promotion Perspectives; EISSN 2228-6497.
https://doi.org/10.5681/HPP.2014.002
THANK YOU
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