Law urged for pvt schools to implement health plans

ABU DHABI — New laws and regulations must be enacted to make sure that private schools implemented the school health programme prescribed by the Ministry of Health (MoH), a senior health official has suggested.


The official, who did not wish to be named, stressed that new legislations must be passed to ensure compliance by private schools of the comprehensive and quality curative and preventive health programmes developed by the MoH to protect students’ health.

In 2004, the MoH had decided that health programmes implemented at public schools must also be implemented in private schools.

The official said the School Health Department in the MoH conducted a medical check-up programme for 35,663 students in public schools at primary and secondary levels and 6,158 students at kindergarten for the academic year 2006-2007.

The results of the medical examination showed the existence of 1,244 cases of communicable diseases among students, out of which 719 were chicken pox cases, said the official citing a statistical report issued by the department.

The report showed that obesity among students in the first, fifth and ninth grades was detected in 2,274 cases, of which 967 were male and 1,307 female students. Among the other detected ailments among schoolchildren was anaemia in 1,638 cases, of which 648 were male and 990 female students, said the report.

As many as 219 students were found to be suffering from skin diseases, of which 58 were male and 161 female students, said the report.

There are 1,224 public and private schools in the country, accommodating around 618,000 students, according to the report