By Charity Shumba (Assistant Educational Psychologist)
Policy- what is it all about?
A school health policy is a clearly defined document / policy that promotes health and wellbeing in schools. In 2018 the government of Zimbabwe through Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in collaboration with Ministry of Health and Child Care launched the Zimbabwe School Health Policy with a vision of having a primary and secondary education system with an enabling environment for the provision of equitable, sustainable and quality health services for all learners.
The policy objectives seeks to provide competency based health education, including life skills that are age appropriate, culturally relevant and scientifically accurate in the school setting, improve access to and use of health and nutrition services at school, promote safe school environments that are stimulating, socially supportive and hygienic for learners, teachers and community in the school setting. The policy also seeks to strengthen multi-sectorial, collaboration and coordination in school health programming as well as strengthening the organisational structure and professional capacity development of teachers to enable the developments. It also seeks to provide opportunities for physical education and recreation to enable access of young people to constructive activities and strengthen school programmes, for counselling, social support and mental health promotion.
The school health policy is based on three implementing strategies which includes mainstreaming of health topics into the curriculum for all schools, provision of school health package and strengthening of inter-ministerial linkages and coordination of all stakeholder support for Enhanced System management, Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation, encouraging Public –Private Partnerships
Zimbabwe School Health Policy implementation successes Through the implementation of the ZSHP quite a number of programmes are being implemented in schools, these have strengthened the education, health and general welfare of the learner.
- The Ministry of Education in collaboration with Ministry of Health together with other stakeholders have promoted health behaviours and improved awareness about health issues among learners and community at large.
- Health services such as vaccination on COVID 19, TCV and other diseases are brought to schools and communities for ease access with the aim of creating a healthy learner.
- Through collaboration of the two ministries together with other partners most schools have safe water sources which contributed to a healthy and hygienic school environment.
- There is also improved menstrual hygiene in schools through provision of sanitary wear for vulnerable children and bins for safe disposal by the government in schools though there is need to secure more reusable pads for sustainability.
- Guidance and counselling is being taught in schools from starting from ECD.
The school health policy has significantly managed to standardise and improve the general implementation of health programmes in schools. This has helped to improve access to health services that has transformed the well-being for learners.
The missing link
The Zimbabwe School Health Policy has managed to contribute immensely towards learner wellbeing; however there remain significant gaps in other critical areas which are often neglected and associated with adulthood such as mental health, drugs and substance abuse. This has been evidenced by an increase in cases of suicide, drug and substance abuse and other wanton behaviours being exhibited by learners in various learning institutions. We have witnessed quite a number of children who decided to take their lives, for example the recent ZRP high school case where an A level student committed suicide in the school premises. Our children, both boys and girls are abusing drugs and various substances in schools and at home. The issue of suicide, drug and substance abuse has become a worrying trend among our children both in and out of school and suicide is now considered the fourth leading cause of death among teenagers and adolescents.
The most recent trends seem to point to the fact that children are succumbing to serious mental health issues as well as poor copying mechanisms which makes it difficult for them to bear with day-to-day stressors and experience leading to such terrible things as suicide or resorting to drug abuse. What makes matters worse is that a lot of people view learners as incapable of experiencing high levels of stress, emotional distress and depression and as a result little has been done to focus on the learner while much effort is being dedicated to adults mental health issues Children are facing a lot of life pressures, pressure to succeed, to finish school work , some are coming from broken families, child headed families, families with gender based violence which all contribute negatively to their mental health.
To make matters worse the current economic condition in Zimbabwe is making most parents to concentrate on hustling to put food on the table to the extent that they do not have time for their children. The issue of social media is also affecting a lot of families as people will spend most of their time on their phones during family time which makes it difficult for children and parents to have that special time talking, discussing issues affecting them. Drug abuse is also associated with mental health issues, research indicated that children who are involved in drugs and substance abuse are more likely to commit suicide or to have mental health problems compared to those who are not involved in drug use. Sometimes children commit suicide with a mind of fixing those whom they thought would have wronged them and they do so without understanding that death is permanent.
Some of the challenges that are contributing to all these problems is that our teachers are not capacitated to handle children with various mental health problems and there is lack of mental health training among teachers and school administrators. There is no standardised curriculum when it comes to dealing with mental health in children especially in schools. Teachers try and use their experience from guidance and counselling to help but there are some cases which needs mental health experts for the children to be fully helped.
Another contributing factor is the general lack of motivation among teachers who instead of utilising the time allocated for guidance and counselling and general health education, they use that slot as an opportunity for conducting extra lessons which have been sustaining many in the face of crippling economy and low remuneration . The ultimate product of such appalling situation is an academically intelligent learner who has poor copying mechanisms when faced with life problems and shallow in solving life problems.
Staff attrition also negatively contribute to gaps in policy implementation in school, for instance if we lose teachers with institutional memory on issues affecting learners and their behaviours or character, it becomes difficult to longitudinally track and subsequently monitor the behaviours of those children who exhibit metal health and drug abusing proclivities.
There is limited referral services for mental health as well as key staffs addressing mental health issues considering number of learners and cases needing their services. For instance the number of mental health experts and professional (psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors) manning the provincial education offices in the Ministry of primary and Secondary Education are very few compared to the overwhelming number of cases arising every day. This results in poor case management and piece meal solutions to all the emerging issues.
How do we proceed?
For every policy to be successful, the implementers of that policy should take full participation and ownership of the programme. So in this case the government, teachers, parents and children are the centre stage of the problem and obviously part of the solution in effective school health policy implementation therefore the following recommendations could be adopted:
There is need for the government to allocate more funding on the health and education sector for easy implementation of the policy to facilitate availability of awareness and psycho social packages including from private actors so that learners become more empowered to cope and deal with the key drivers of suicide and drug and substance abuse.
Mental health curriculum should be part of in service training for all teachers just like core curriculum activities, than it to be post basic training which one needs to acquire after the teaching certificate. This will enable all teachers who mostly act in loco-parentis to be able to deal with all cases professionally and in a sustainable manner. More so, there is need for schools to seek the services of educational psychologists to handle complicated cases and assist during capacity development of teachers.
There should be a standardised curriculum for mental health in schools and each school must have a mental health expert to help with mental health awareness and issues affecting our children in schools. More awareness campaigns on mental health issues are needed as mental health is a reality.
Schools, districts and provinces should create a database on issue of learners so that other new teachers who come to that school can easily access information about the learners. This makes it easier for the new teacher to quickly know their children and easily know how to help the child or intervene in certain situation. It is of paramount importance for school to ensure that there is conducive learning environment which is free from bullying.
Parents should use positive parenting methods which allow them to have good relationships with their children making it easier for them to open up to their parents whenever they are facing challenges as well as learning and getting good advices from parents than getting wrong information and advices from outsiders and social media. Parents should always find time to talk to their children so that they understand them better and become aware of what is happening to their children’s lives. Parents should monitor their children regularly so that they know their movements and whereabouts than just letting their children do as they please. Parents should treat suspicious mental health issues with the urgency it deserves by seeking professional help from mental health experts when necessary than wait until it is too late.
Children should be taught to understand that life is valuable; one leaves daily and die once. Killing oneself is permanent, there is no life after death and taking one’s life is not an option and is not solution. Our children should understand that resorting to drug and substance abuse is not a solution but rather another problem which will be more difficult to solve. Children should be encouraged to open up whenever they are facing challenges as it is always ‘said a problem shared is a problem solved’.
Government should strive to avail better remuneration to teachers in line with the u decent work agenda as this will limit teacher attrition and enhance sustainable behaviour change culture in schools
