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Special Essay

Health education should be

a separate school subject

RAHUL MEHRA

ATTENDED THE AMERICAN SCHOOL HEALTH Unfortunately no action has been taken
Association Conference convened in Pittsburgh, USA by the Union government to address
(October 15-18). The conference was attended by edu-
I cationists engaged with school health programs in the the issue of children’s mental health
US. They included school health teachers, nurses, admin- since 2007. Recent studies report that
istrators from several state boards of education and CDC
(Centre for Disease Control) — established by the Federal 30-40 percent of students in India suffer
government in 1946. Most delegates were from the US with serious mental health issues
a few from other countries. I was the sole delegate from
India. number of suicides within India’s students’ community,
Although several topics of interest were discussed, the frequently reported by the media.
two most important are discussed below. Further neglect of this issue can’t be condoned if India
Mental health. CDC conducts a Youth Risk Behaviour aspires to become a developed country by 2047. It’s im-
Survey (YRBS) of middle and high school students from perative that health education is made compulsory in every
private and public (government) schools across the US ev- school across the country. This will require a health edu-
ery second year. This survey was started in 1991 to moni- cation curriculum for each grade level that addresses the
tor health-risk behaviour of school students. YRBS 2023 mental, social and physical health of children. Secondly, a
covered 20,000 class IX-XII high school students from 155 countrywide health assessment/survey needs to be initiated
American schools. The questionnaire included queries re- and frequently updated.
lated to mental health, substance abuse, nutrition, sexual New health education standards. To teach K-12 stu-
health, violence, safety, social health and technology addic- dents any subject such as maths, science, language in every
tion. The most startling finding of YRBS was that 40 percent country has set benchmarks to guide curriculum develop-
of students reported they “felt so sad or hopeless almost ment, instruction and assessment. In the US, a coalition of
every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped professional groups prescribe American health education
doing some usual activities of the past 12 months”. Depres- standards. The standards mandate the health knowledge
sion among girls was higher than among male students. and behaviour benchmarks that must be attained. Recently
The only silver lining of the survey is that it reports a it has set eight new standards for children’s physical, men-
slight improvement from two years ago, when the same tal and social health.
questions were asked. A major reason for improvement The eight standards mandate that students have (i) func-
is that the mental health education program developed by tional health knowledge (ii) analyse the influence of family,
CDC and/or states is now compulsory in most states. Some peers, culture, social media, technology and other determi-
of the presentations discussed ways and means to improve nants on health behaviour (iii) demonstrate health literacy
mental health. The consensus was that social interaction, by accessing valid and reliable health information, products
physical activity, sleep, nutrition, focused activities, com- and services to enhance health (iv) demonstrate effective
munion with nature, gratitude and compassion contribute interpersonal communication skills to enhance health (v)
healthily towards mental well-being. Factors that harm demonstrate effective decision-making skills for health en-
mental health are excessive academic pressure, bullying, hancement (vi) demonstrate effective goal-setting skills for
lack of support system, excessive use of social media and health enhancement (vii) demonstrate observable health
substance abuse. and safety practices and (viii) advocate behaviour that sup-
Such mental health surveys are not unknown in India. ports personal, family, peer, school and community health.
But the last time India conducted a similar survey was in It’s clearly stated that prescribed performance indica-
2007. The Global School Health Survey (GSHS) was de- tors must be met at the end of class II, class V, class VIII
veloped by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in co- and class XII and are designed to progressively challenge
ordination with Unicef and Unesco. Even 17 years ago, 25.5 students to safeguard health at appropriate age and devel-
percent of students aged 13-17 reported that they “felt so opment levels. On the other hand in India, health is not
sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in an educational discipline and therefore there are no stan-
a row that they stopped doing their usual activities of the dards. To improve the health of the nation, health education
past 12 months”. needs to be on a par with other education subjects. When
Unfortunately, no action has been taken by Government that happens, we will develop our own health education
of India to address the issue. Since then the mental health standards.
of children has worsened. Recent small-scale studies have
reported that 30-40 percent of students in India suffer seri- (Rahul Mehra is UNESCO Chair for Global Health & Education and Chair-
ous mental health issues. This is the root cause of the high man, Tarang Health Alliance)

30 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2024