IMPLEMENTATION FIDELITY OF THE HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOL PROGRAMME IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN THE CITY OF TSHWANE, GAUTENG (original) (raw)
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Validity and reliability of the South African health promoting schools monitoring questionnaire
Health Promotion International, 2016
Health promoting schools, as conceptualised by the World Health Organisation, have been developed in many countries to facilitate the health-education link. In 1994, the concept of health promoting schools was introduced in South Africa. In the process of becoming a health promoting school, it is important for schools to monitor and evaluate changes and developments taking place. The Health Promoting Schools (HPS) Monitoring Questionnaire was developed to obtain opinions of students about their school as a health promoting school. It comprises 138 questions in seven sections: sociodemographic information; General health promotion programmes; health related Skills and knowledge; Policies; Environment; Community-school links; and support Services. This paper reports on the reliability and face validity of the HPS Monitoring Questionnaire. Seven experts reviewed the questionnaire and agreed that it has satisfactory face validity. A test-retest reliability study was conducted with 83 students in three high schools in Cape Town, South Africa. The kappa-coefficients demonstrate mostly fair (j-scores between 0.21 and 0.4) to moderate (j-scores between 0.41 and 0.6) agreement between test-retest General and Environment items; poor (j-scores up to 0.2) agreement between Skills and Community test-retest items, fair agreement between Policies items, and for most of the questions focussing on Services a fair agreement was found. The study is a first effort at providing a tool that may be used to monitor and evaluate students' opinions about changes in health promoting schools. Although the HPS Monitoring Questionnaire has face validity, the results of the reliability testing were inconclusive. Further research is warranted.
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South African Family Practice, 2010
Background: The level of development of a country is measured by the health status of its children. The higher the mortality and morbidity rates in children, the more the country is challenged to improve its health care system. Although South Africa accepted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1996 thereby committing itself to prioritisation of children, the implementation of school health services in South Africa has deteriorated to levels that contravene these rights. The promotion of health in schools requires a strong political commitment that will influence all levels of policy making, in other words national, provincial and local, towards an integrated and coordinated school health programme. Methods: A qualitative, explorative and descriptive study was conducted to identify barriers that led to poor implementation and a decline of school health services in the Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces. The data-collection method of choice for this study was focus group discussions, which were conducted with all intersectoral role-players involved in school health programmes. To ensure broad representation of the various stakeholders, 10 participants were selected from five districts in each of the two provinces. This resulted in 50 participants per province. Results: The study findings reveal the following as barriers that hamper successful implementation of comprehensive school health programmes: • Barriers related to governance, for example lack of national policy guidelines for school health services and failure of government to prioritise school health services • Programme-related issues, such as lack of intersectoral collaboration and unrealistic nurse-learner ratios • Management-related issues, such as lack of support by management and managers' limited knowledge of the Healthpromoting Schools Initiative • Community-related issues, such as health professionals not including the communities in school health programmes Conclusions: The need for political commitment in consistently placing the health and education of learners as a priority on the national agenda cannot be over-emphasised. Having adopted the CRC, South Africa took a giant step towards the prioritisation of child protection and care issues. This commitment can only be achieved through conscious intersectoral efforts that will promote a spirit of working together and sharing scarce resources towards one common goal.
Curationis, 2015
Background: Health promoting schools focus on, amongst other things, preventing leading causes of death such as Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s), Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a sedentary lifestyle and creating conditions that are conducive to health through health education.Aim: This study explored the perceptions of educators regarding implementation of the health promotion programme manuals in selected schools of the Makapanstad community.Method: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was utilised in this study. Four schools were selected to participate in the study. Purposive sampling was used to select educators from these schools who were actively involved in the health promotion programme. Data collection was taken through focus group interviews. One focus group comprised of eight participants who were interviewed three times. The focus group interviews were conducted until data were saturated....
2016
Furthermore, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my mother Constance Lenkokile, for taking care of my children while I was working on this research project. To my children, Atlegang and Bokang, thank you for your patience since I could not be with you all the time. I hope this work will be an inspiration and a challenge to the whole family. I would like to sincerely thank the University of South Africa for awarding me financial assistance in the form of a bursary without which I could not have been able to undertake my studies. I also thank the editor of this document, Marti Gerber for her professionalism and dedication. Moreover, I convey my gratitude to the school managers and primary healthcare facility managers of Region C for allowing me the opportunity to conduct my studies within their institutions. Finally I thank all my colleagues for their support and encouragement during my studies.
Intergrated Approach to Health Promotion: The South African Schools’ Role
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2014
This research sought to examine the schools' role in integrated health promotion. The key focus was on the understanding of the integrated policies and the implications of practical implementation of such policies in schools. This research was explorative in nature and involved a stratified sample of 16 participants from one of the municipalities under Sedibeng District Municipality. The findings revealed that the schools' ineffectiveness in their role is a barrier to efficient health services by health teams. There is lack of coordination and collaboration of health services due to lack of training and accountability.
BMC Public Health, 2012
Background: This study evaluated the primary school environment in terms of being conducive to good nutrition practices, sufficient physical activity and prevention of nicotine use, with the view of planning a school-based health intervention. Methods: A sample of 100 urban and rural disadvantaged schools was randomly selected from two education districts of the Western Cape Education Department, South Africa. A situation analysis, which comprised an interview with the school principal and completion of an observation schedule of the school environment, was done at all schools.
BMC Public Health, 2015
Background: The HealthKick intervention, introduced at eight primary schools in low-income settings in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, aimed to promote healthy lifestyles among learners, their families and school staff. Eight schools from similar settings without any active intervention served as controls. Methods: The Action Planning Process (APP) guided school staff through a process that enabled them to assess areas for action; identify specific priorities; and set their own goals regarding nutrition and physical activity at their schools. Educators were introduced to the APP and trained to undertake this at their schools by holding workshops. Four action areas were covered, which included the school nutrition environment; physical activity and sport environment; staff health; and chronic disease and diabetes awareness. Intervention schools also received a toolkit comprising an educator's manual containing planning guides, printed resource materials and a container with physical activity equipment. To facilitate the APP, a champion was identified at each school to drive the APP and liaise with the project team. Over the three-years a record was kept of activities planned and those accomplished. At the end of the intervention, focus group discussions were held with school staff at each school to capture perceptions about the APP and intervention activities. Results: Overall uptake of events offered by the research team was 65.6 % in 2009, 75 % in 2010 and 62.5 % in 2011. Over the three-year intervention, the school food and nutrition environment action area scored the highest, with 55.5 % of planned actions being undertaken. In the chronic disease and diabetes awareness area 54.2 % actions were completed, while in the school physical activity and sport environment and staff health activity areas 25.9 and 20 % were completed respectively. According to educators, the low level of implementation of APP activities was because of a lack of parental involvement, time and available resources, poor physical environment at schools and socioeconomic considerations. Conclusions: The implementation of the HealthKick intervention was not as successful as anticipated. Actions required for future interventions include increased parental involvement, greater support from the Department of Basic Education and assurance of sufficient motivation and 'buy-in' from schools.
South Africa case study: Building support and policy change for integrated school health
2019
This case study is implemented within the project ‘Fostering policy support for child and family wellbeing Learning from international experience’. Using a thematic and analytic framework for the project that draws on Kingdon’s multi-streams theory2 we are gathering and sharing evidence and learning on what has led to increased policy recognition of and policy change in family and child health and wellbeing (FCHW). In specific countries that have demonstrated policy recognition and change in FCHW post 2000, we are exploring within their context how different policy actors have come together to raise policy attention, develop policy options and promote their political adoption as processes for policy change, taking advantage of windows of opportunity for that change. The case studies were implemented with a local focal person with direct knowledge or experience of the policy process and include evidence from published and grey literature and interview of key informants involved in th...
University of the Western Cape, 2019
Provision of effective school health services is fundamental to learners' health and learning. It is obvious that ineffective or absent school health services would ultimately jeopardize the health of learners, core school activities and results. Hence, it is vital for the government departments and schools concerned, to ensure effective school health services delivery, for the benefit of all learners and to alleviate health problems in schools. The purpose of the study is to understand the effective provision of school health services related to the Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL) and Integrated School Health Policy (ISHP) frameworks in the selected Western Cape formerly disadvantaged schools located in both the Metro East and Metro North Districts. A qualitative research procedure was chosen utilizing qualitative research methods, individual interviews, focus group interviews and non-participant observation. The study focused on three schools, including two public primary schools and one public secondary school that were purposefully sampled to participate in the study. The research concentrated only on the views of the parents, educators, and principals. This investigation revealed that parents, educators, and principals find themselves incapacitated and helpless in addressing health issues due to inadequate school facilities, information, and support for effective school health services delivery in their schools. This study concludes by recommending that principals, teachers, and parents should be carefully trained on how to deal with learners' health problems that may arise either from home or at school. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ x DESCRIPTION OF KEY TERMS School Health Services-are parts of the school health program provided by physicians, nurses, dentists, social workers, teachers, and other skilled health personnel, to appraise, protect and promote the health of students and the school personnel (Baru 2009). School Health Problems-refer to health problems of school children which vary from one place to another and may include malnutrition, stomach parasites, injuries and infectious disease including skin, eye, or ear diseases amongst others illnesses (Sonawane 2017). Integrated School Health Policy (ISHP)-is a recognized advancement of the school health agenda and the recognition of school health services as a national priority programme, offered through the integrated involvement of the Departments of Basic Education (DBE) and Social Development (DSD) (Integrated School Health Policy 2012). School Health Program-includes maintenance of the school environment, protection, and promotion of health, as well as health education (Currie & Vogl 2013). Health Promoting School-is defined as a school that is constantly strengthening its own capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working (Struthers et al. 2013).