26 May 2025

0:02 Did you know that school health in Kenya is guided by the Kenya comprehensive school health policy? This was established in 2018 and is now under review to align with the government's prioritization of the health of learners and this is to accelerate universal health coverage and the bottomup economic transformation agenda. The school health policy adopts a holistic approach to enhance the well-being of the learners and is guided by the best evidence in ensuring implementable sustainable school health interventions under the framework for evaluating school health interventions.

0:48 This framework is anchored on five interlin pillars that capture the entireity of the health needs of the learners. And um some of these could include the equitable school health policies including mainstreaming special needs and learners with disabilities, skill-based uh school health education and social behavior change and communication. remember as a ministry or as a from the health sector issues to do with social behavior change is very very critical and especially to young learners because of mental health issues. We already know that uh in Kenya

1:35 15 to 35 years old are into one or two drugs and it is important that while learners are in school we are able to encourage them and also educate them on how to keep away from drugs. We equally are talking about the school-based health and nutrition services. I have seen eminent individuals who are uh into school feeding program and including her excellency the first lady of the republic of Kenya which is very very commendable. All these initiatives align with Kenya's vision 2030 such as the provision of uh meals hygiene education. We are very very keen when we talk about

2:22 um personal hygiene, environmental hygiene, water and sanitation and equally the framework also aims to support the soio economically disadvantaged and nutritionally vulnerable children especially in the semiarid lands and uh in formal urban settlements. at the Ministry of Health and the Department of Public Health, we are looking forward to have engagement and especially now when we have uh had an inaugural school health summit and uh the ongoing revision and alignment of the school health policy. have seen public health department through the school health division work

3:07 around the clock to enhance the effectiveness of school health programs in Kenya and uh investment of essential uh infrastructure supplies such as the sanitation facilities. We are talking about a pukahuch a shelleni. Uh when we talk about a chafu aeni we are talking about personal hygiene, basic hygiene issues, uh body cleanliness, uh helping the children to have um handkerchiefs when they go to school, ensuring that each and every child they clean their hands before they eat, after using the toilet.

3:52 We are equally looking at the environmental hygiene. Uh the cleanness of the classes, the cleanliness of where they come from their homestead, the cleanliness of the equipment that they have equally water and sanitation. Let the children take clean water, clean boiled water. And should we miss that, we need to have water that is treated. and uh equally the use of toilets or latrines. We also want to see a standardized and uh mainstreamed health education and social behavior change communication in schools and this includes objective delivery of the

4:38 school education and social behavior change communication model. It is important to note that uh some of the schoolgoing children um sometimes may uh encounter mental health issues and and if we are not able to tap it in good time then it becomes a challenge as they continue growing up. The Kenya comprehensive school health policy has had several positive impacts since its introduction and especially in the area of student well-being, education outcomes and community involvement. There is access to water, access to sanitation and hygiene in schools which has improved greatly and this helps

5:25 reduce waterborn and hygiene related illnesses. We also have school-based dewarming vaccination and hygiene campaigns and this in itself has led to healthier students who can attend school more consistently than before. We have better enrollment and attendance uh by addressing key health issues like malnutrition, ministration management and disease prevention. The policy which has helped reduce absentism in school. Our girls in particular benefit from the menstrual hygiene support from the government which leads to improved attendance and retention. As a public

6:12 health department, we want to challenge schools that they come up with public health or hygiene champions just like we have champions in maths, champions in English, champions in other languages, uh champions in science. Let us have hygiene champions. And this is going back to the basics, the basic of cleanliness, washing of hands, having proper infrastructure in the schools to ensure that uh children know the basics in terms of washing hands, bathing h every other day. Ensuring that they use the toilet or allin. Ensuring that they

6:58 drink clean and safe water. Ensuring that their environment is not littered and ensuring also that food hygiene is topnotch and is taken seriously both at school and at home to avoid waterborn diseases um and other ailments that can are preventable. Vectorbone diseases and um uh equally other diseases that are preventable.