The KZN Department of Education will be hosting the provincial Integrated School Health Programme [ISHP] cascading implementation workshop for all 12 districts in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The training and empowering Workshop would take place during the 8th to 11th of October 2013 at the Blue Waters Hotel in Durban. The Reducing Maternal and Child Mortality through strengthening primary Health Care [RMCH] in partnership with the Department of Education paid Blue Waters Hotel R197 000 to cover the 4-day conferencing.
Why is health screening important for learners? The Department of Health, in partnership with the Department of Basic Education, is conducting basic health screening for Grade 1 learners. The screening aims to identify and address important health barriers to learning.
What does Health Screening involve? A team of health professionals led by school health nurses will visit schools and check all Grade 1 learners for some of the following: vision, hearing, nutritional status, dental health, physical and loco motor functioning, speech, immunization status and for parasites such as worms. The message is clear healthy children are successful learners.
The objectives of the ISHP Workshop is to ensure:
- All stakeholders fully understand linkages between ISHP, Care and Support for Teaching and Learning, [CSTL] and the broader planning framework for all relevant sectors.
- All stakeholders understand the role of each governmental sector, partners and relevant community members in implementation and co-ordination of ISHP activities
- To strengthen the principles of future partnership
- To strengthen provincial based coordination around school health.
- To formulate realistic and achievable provincial plans, working action plans to strengthen implementation anddemand for school health services 2014/2015.
- To cascade establishment of ISHP task teams model to all 12 districts in the province of KZN.
