Background
In Swaziland, the School Health Program was established in 1976 under public health activities by both the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. The mandate of the program is to provide health services to in school children and schools. In all these years, the program has been funded by government with partners.
The Ministry of Health is cognisant of the fact that the health status of any country’s population is a fundamental criterion by which development process should be measured. Integral to the country’s policies is the school health programme
4 School Health
The school health programme was established in 1976. School Health is based in the four regions and housed by the Ministry of Education and Training (REOs). It manned by a multidisciplinary team and the reporting structures are dual in that they report to MoET and MOH. The major beneficiaries of the school health programme are the school children studying in pre-school, primary and secondary education and to some extent their households and the community.
School Health programme if effectively implemented can help in addressing to some extent the hunger (malnutrition), reduction in child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and ensuring environmental sustainability being the major challenges of Sustainable Development Goals.
Table 2.5. Dashboard on Key Performance Indicators for School Health
| Thematic area | Indicator name | Baseline | Target | Quarterly Actual output/outcome | Status (Highlight colour ) | Reasons for not achieving |
| Health education sessions | # schools with health education IEC materials | - |
200 schools |
IEC materials (booklets and posters, Flip charts) developed | In the process of developing booklets with MoET an NCC | |
| # health education training sessions conducted | - | 200 schools | 210 sessions | |||
| Mental Health | # children screened | - | 15, 000 learners | 25,000Children screened | ||
|
# children referred |
- | 250 | 92 Children referred | |||
| Eye care | # children screened for vision impairments | - |
15, 000 Learners |
16 000 Children screened | ||
| # children referred | - | 250 | 35 Children referred | |||
| Ear Nose throat |
# children screened Hearing impairments |
15, 000 | 35,00 Children screened | |||
|
# children referred |
250 | 400 Children referred | ||||
| Oral Health | # children screened | 15, 000 | 20,000 Children screened | |||
| # children referred | 250 | 40 Children referred | ||||
|
Nutrition |
# of children moderately malnourished | - | 15 000 | 21 000 Children screened | ||
| # of children referred | - | 250 | 57 Children referred | |||
|
Environmental Health |
# schools inspected |
- | 200 |
300 Schools inspected |
||
| # schools with WASH activities | - | 100 | 300 Schools with WASH facilities | |||
| # schools with follow-up inspections | - | 300 | 87 Schools with follow up inspections | |||
| Protective services | # eligible children Immunized | - | 400 | 120 Children immunized | ||
| # defaulters immunized | - | 400 | 300 Defaulters immunized | |||
| # children dewormed | - | 400 | 466 Children dewormed | |||
| # of children given Vitamin A | 400 | 130 given Vitamin A | ||||
|
Disease conditions |
# children treated | - | 10 000 | 13 00 Children treated | ||
| # children referred | - | 250 | 387 Children referred |
Programme Manager Mildred Xaba