Scanning Hong Kong's schools,
one feels sad to see them getting unhealthier by the year. Different sorts of
student problems, whether emotional, interpersonal, or behavioural, crop up and
plague schools to varying degrees.
The list is long, ranging from
emotional outbursts, depression, and substance abuse to bullying, gang fights,
teenage pregnancies and lack of respect for authority, plus a wide range of
learning difficulties, the seriousness of which is aggravated by the rash
introduction of the integrated education policy, under which special needs
students are placed in mainstream schools.
On the whole, students are
unhappy, lacking self-esteem and self-confidence, although still scoring high
on international tests. Educators are no healthier either. Incessant reform
efforts and the lingering threat of school closures over the past decade have
taken their toll, as have increased workloads, physical exhaustion and
depression. Regrettably, schools have become an unhealthy place to study and
work in. This issue deserves serious attention - as an unhealthy school
environment can only breed unhealthy students.
Health is important for both personal and
societal development. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health holistically,
seeking physical, social and mental health for all citizens. To them, the
school is one important setting in which holistic health should be sought for
all. Building healthy schools is also one of their most important strategies in
the battle for global health. They have been striving to build regional centres
to promote school health and foster healthy attitudes in schoolchildren.
According to the WHO, a healthy
school is supposed to be built around six core areas: health policies, health
services, health training for students, school ethos, physical environments and
school-community relations. Obviously, it is prevention taking precedence over
treatment and a total approach to school health and improvement, but in
practice, individual schools are free to choose the entry point and level of
engagement.
Hong Kong, fortunately, has been
making its own efforts to promote school health. The Healthy School Award
Scheme (2001-2004) and the subsequent QEF Thematic Network for Healthy Schools
(2011-2015), both supported by the Quality Education Fund, have managed to
inculcate a new, health-promoting culture in schools. Under these projects,
around 500 schools have participated in the business of health education and
health promotion. Some schools participating in these enterprises even managed
to win awards that will qualify them for the WHO regional registry as health
promoting schools.
In fact, Hong Kong has become a
regional leader regarding school health promotion, thanks to the ongoing
collaboration between the government and education and health professionals. We
have built a basic curriculum and training structure for school health
promotion and also a sound infrastructure to audit achievements, confer awards,
disseminate good practice and spread the health message.
Research results have also shown
that schools joining the health-promoting movement have experienced better
health, in terms of better health achievements and learning for their students,
better school ethos and so on. More importantly, we have also nurtured a
community of health-promoting schools which have the potential to become
mentors to their peers.
Schools that have benefited from
this experience can serve as standard-bearers for health promotion, spreading
the message to others. Hopefully, this practice will ultimately extend to all
schools and kindergartens in the city. In addition, Hong Kong can also benefit
from links with other major health-promoting players both regionally and
globally in terms of information and experience exchange, and can also serve as
a hub to promote regional resilience in the face of growing health threats.
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