ETUCE signs statement Integration of Health in Education

Published:

In the frame of the 'Integrating Health & Social Programs Within Education Systems' event, on 1 to 3 June 2015 in Paris, hosted by Education International (EI), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and the International School Health Network (ISHN), ETUCE has signed the statement 'Integration of Health in Education' supporting the idea of 'integrating health and social development in education.'

The statement was first approved at the Global School Health Symposium in Thailand, 2013 and discussed in further symposiums by education, health and school health experts. The statement outlines four main considerations for the health sector, which are:

  1. 'the health sector needs to seek integration within the education system—not education's adoption of health priorities'
  2. 'Health system officials, decision makers, and researchers should examine and better understand via dialogue led or facilitated by educators the core mandates, constraints, attributes, processes, and characteristics of educational systems in order to better integrate within them.'
  3. 'Health and social sectors join the education sector in focusing on the growth and development of the whole child rather than directing attention and resources only toward specific diseases, behaviors, or conditions as separate or siloed entities. Disease intervention must occur as required but needs to be housed in an overall health and development, or salutogenic, framework, refocusing attention on a settings-based approach.'
  4. 'This realignment of health and other sector efforts should be based on a systems-based, organizational development approach focused on capacity building and continuous improvement.'

To read the statement, please click here