11,000 Benefit From Lagos Health Programme

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Jide Idris has said that more than 11,000 pupils from 43 public schools in eight local government areas benefited from the government’s school health programme.

Dr Idris who said this weekend while reviewing the third term activities of the programme, noted that the need to prevent, reduce, monitor and treat problems peculiar to pupils and the school environment in the state, especially in the areas of dental and eye care, necessitated the introduction of the school health programme.

The commissioner described school health as the state of complete physical, mental and spiritual well-being of school children with cognizance to their environment. He noted that the goal of the programme was to ensure that each child was as healthy as possible to obtain the maximum benefit from his or her education within an environment that is safe and conducive for learning.

According to Idris, “the school health rogramme was created out of the need to address the health needs of school pupils in Lagos schools as well as with their school environment.

The programme is essentially aimed at the prevention, reduction and treatment of problems and illness which are peculiar to the pupils and their school environment.

He noted that the state government, with the acquisition of two mobile dental clinics, has integrated oral health into the programme in realization of the fact that oral health was an essential and integrated component of health throughout the life span of a human.

Idris noted that the goal of the integration exercise was to educates the public, detect and treat oral problems at the early stages in an attempt to promote a healthy mouth and a healthy child.