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

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

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845933111
Publisher:	CABI
Publication date:	12/18/2007
Series:	CABI Publishing Series
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

* The compelling case for school health and nutrition
* Challenges for child health and nutrition
* Health, nutrition and access to education
* Long-term effects of preschool health and nutrition on educational achievement
* Health, nutrition and educational achievement of school-age children
* Costs and benefits of school health and nutrition interventions
* School health and nutrition programs

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: David Dosoo, MS (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Description: This well illustrated book discusses school health and nutrition and the challenges to achieving them, examining the different ways of promoting school health and nutrition in a cost-effective manner.
Purpose: The authors indicate their goal is to enhance the development of human resources in emerging countries. They propose that the most cost-effective and influential approach is by improving school health and nutrition. Cost-effectiveness is important because it makes judicious use of the limited funding available and a school-based approach is important because improving health and nutrition will promote education. This is an important goal that the book meets.
Audience: According to the authors, this book targets policy makers, educational and health organizations, and researchers in international development, public health, psychology, and education. The authors have vast experience in education, parasitology, epidemiology, and school health and nutrition.
Features: This book strongly advocates for the promoting of education through school health and nutrition and provides evidence to show its cost-effectiveness. This system has been embraced by some countries. The book summarizes the results of many interventions and studies and the outcomes are well organized and backed with tables and illustrations that support the authors' arguments. The generous use of subtitles makes for an easy read. The authors also make excellent use of tables and black-and-white figures to provide readers with easily extracted summaries. The conclusions are cited, and almost all the citations are less than 10 years old. The index is modest but useful.
Assessment: This book will have an impact on education in developing countries if policy makers will adopt its cost-effective methods to make health and nutrition available to children.

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