School Health, Nutrition, and Education for All : Levelling the Playing Field

by M C H Jukes; L J Drake; D A P Bundy

• ISBN13: 9781845933111
• ISBN10: 1845933117
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-15
• Publisher: Cab Intl

Summary

Providing good quality education to all children in the poorest countries of the world is not a simple task. However, improving children's health and nutrition is one simple step that can be taken towards achieving this goal. Health and nutrition programs offer substantial benefits to children's education, helping them to attend school and learn while there. What is more, the education of the poorest in society benefits the most from such programs because the poor are more likely to suffer from ill health or poor nutrition and are also more likely to experience a disruption in their learning as a result. School health and nutrition programs make use of the education system to deliver simple treatments for common conditions. The result is a highly cost-effective way to reduce inequalities in education and to help all children around the world reach their educational potential. This argument is examined through a discussion of the challenges to child health and nutrition and the impact of these on education and an analysis of the costs, benefits and policy options involved in the implementation of health and nutrition programs in schools. Providing a simple and achievable solution to improving access, gender equity and the quality of basic education, this book will be essential to policy makers, educational and health organizations and researchers in international development, public health, psychology and education.

Table of Contents

List of boxes, figures and tables	p. vi
List of abbreviations and acronyms	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. x
About the authors	p. xi
About the book	p. xii
The compelling case for school health and nutrition	p. 1
Challenges in achieving Education for All	p. 1
School health and nutrition: a "quick win"	p. 3
Levelling the playing field	p. 4
The Double Jeopardy of disease among the poor	p. 4
School health and nutrition programmes develop capabilities	p. 4
Developing the case for school health and nutrition	p. 6
Challenges for child health and nutrition	p. 11
Health and nutrition of infants and preschool children	p. 11
Health and nutrition in infancy and early childhood	p. 12
Pneumonia causes 2 million deaths annually	p. 12
Diarrhoea causes 21 per cent of deaths in children under 5 years	p. 13
Malaria kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds	p. 13
Measles results in more than 700,000 child deaths annually	p. 16
More than 1,500 children are infected with HIV every day	p. 17
Malnutrition and other perinatal conditions cause 20 per cent of child deaths	p. 17
Diseases of early childhood are preventable and treatable	p. 20
Summary: Health and nutrition in infancy and early childhood	p. 21
School-age children	p. 22
Disease	p. 22
Children harbour greater worm loads as they reach school-age	p. 22
Malaria continues to affect children in school-age	p. 24
HIV&AIDS leaves millions of school-age children without parents	p. 25
Malnutrition	p. 25
Stunting and underweight increase throughout the school-age years	p. 25
Anaemia affects 40 per cent of African schoolchildren	p. 27
Iodine deficiency is the leading preventable cause of mental retardation	p. 28
Vitamin A deficiency affects 85 million school-age children	p. 28
Increasing numbers of schoolchildren are overweight	p. 29
Summary: School-age children	p. 29
Conclusion	p. 30
Health, nutrition and access to education	p. 32
School enrolment, absenteeism and drop-out in poor countries	p. 33
Health, nutrition and school enrolment	p. 34
The impact of nutrition on primary school enrolment	p. 34
Iodine and folate deficiencies can lead to severe mental and physical disability	p. 34
Early childhood stunting has long-term effects on primary school enrolment	p. 35
The impact of infection on primary school enrolment	p. 35
Infection before birth can lead to disability	p. 35
Early childhood malaria prevention increases school enrolment	p. 36
Polio infection causes severe disability	p. 37
Meningitis leads to severe cognitive impairment	p. 37
The impact of school-age health and nutrition on enrolment	p. 38
Enrolment is delayed for children of short stature	p. 38
Child health affects parental enrolment decisions	p. 40
Summary: Health, nutrition and school enrolment	p. 41
Absenteeism and drop-out	p. 41
Malaria prevention improves school attendance	p. 41
Deworming improves school attendance	p. 42
Improved nutrition increases attendance at preschools	p. 43
School feeding programmes improve primary school attendance	p. 44
Parental infection with HIV&AIDS leads to absenteeism	p. 44
Summary: Health, nutrition and school attendance	p. 45
Interventions: What works?	p. 45
Conclusion	p. 46
Long-term effects of preschool health and nutrition on educational achievement	p. 48
Mechanisms for the effects of health and nutrition on learning	p. 49
Direct effects of health and nutrition on behaviour	p. 49
Indirect effects of health and nutrition on behaviour	p. 49
Nutritional deficiencies and child development	p. 51
Undernutrition	p. 51
Undernutrition affects many aspects of brain development	p. 52
Behavioural development is delayed in undernourished children	p. 53
Preventing nutritional deficiency promotes cognitive development	p. 55
Nutritional supplements and psychosocial stimulation help reverse cognitive delays	p. 56
Undernutrition affects cognitive abilities in the long term	p. 58
The long-term effects of severe malnutrition	p. 58
The long-term effects of mild and moderate malnutrition	p. 58
Education and nutrition reinforce one another	p. 60
Nutrition affects cognitive development throughout childhood	p. 61
Mothers behave differently towards undernourished children	p. 62
Children with low birth weight have poor cognitive development	p. 63
Children who are breast-fed have better cognitive abilities	p. 63
Summary: Undernutrition and child development	p. 64
Micronutrient deficiencies	p. 64
Iron deficiency anaemia	p. 64
Iron plays many different roles in the brain	p. 65
Iron deficiency has a large impact on the mental development of children under 2 years	p. 65
Iron deficiency also affects mental development in children aged 2 to 6 years	p. 67
Iron deficient infants have poor cognitive abilities in adolescence	p. 67
Other nutritional deficiencies	p. 69
Iodine deficiency during pregnancy causes long-term cognitive impairment	p. 69
Zinc supplementation can improve cognitive abilities	p. 69
Summary: Micronutrient deficiencies and child development	p. 70
Infectious disease and child development	p. 71
Malaria infection has long-term effects on education	p. 71
Worm infections may affect the cognitive abilities of preschoolers	p. 72
Infants with Giardia infection have lower IQ at age 9	p. 73
Otitis media (Glue Ear) affects language development of poor children	p. 73
Survivors of meningitis perform poorly at school	p. 73
Summary: Infectious disease and child development	p. 74
Interventions: What works?	p. 74
Conclusion	p. 75
Health, nutrition and educational achievement of school-age children	p. 80
Nutritional deficiencies in school-age children	p. 81
Hungry children have poor cognitive abilities	p. 81
Undernourished children perform poorly at school	p. 82
School feeding programmes have modest effects on educational achievement	p. 83
Iron supplementation improves cognitive function of school-age children	p. 84
Cognitive development is delayed in iodine deficient areas	p. 85
Multiple micronutrients improve cognitive abilities	p. 85
Summary: Nutrition in school-age children	p. 86
Infectious disease in school-age children	p. 86
Deworming improves the potential to learn	p. 87
School-based malaria prevention improves educational achievement	p. 89
Colds delay reactions; flu impairs attention	p. 89
Children with HIV infection perform poorly at school	p. 90
Orphanhood leads to psychosocial problems in school-age children	p. 91
Summary: Infection in school-age children	p. 91
Interventions: What works?	p. 92
Conclusion	p. 92
Costs and benefits of school health and nutrition interventions	p. 97
Intervention costs and cost-effectiveness	p. 98
Delivery costs of school health and nutrition programmes are low	p. 98
Cost-effectiveness of school health and nutrition programmes for improving children's health	p. 99
Cost-effectiveness of school health and nutrition programmes for improving education	p. 100
Economic benefits of increased school participation	p. 100
Economic benefits of long-term improvements in cognitive abilities	p. 102
Improved cognition leads to improved educational attainment	p. 102
The global impact of school health and nutrition programmes	p. 105
Comparative cost-effectiveness of school health and nutrition programmes	p. 106
From cost-effectiveness to programme design	p. 107
Conclusion	p. 109
School health and nutrition programmes	p. 110
Policy and economic issues in designing interventions	p. 111
International efforts to support school health and nutrition programmes	p. 112
Programmatic approaches in practice	p. 114
Lessons learned from programmatic experience	p. 117
Key issues in designing an effective school health and nutrition programme	p. 119
School health and nutrition programmes: a policy priority	p. 120
References	p. 122
Index	p. 141
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