Abu Dhabi’s education regulator looks for partners to battle pupils’ health issues

Regulator seeks partners to fight threats including obesity, depression, poor oral hygiene and malnutrition among pupils.

ABU DHABI // The schools regulator is calling for help to battle growing health problems among pupils, including obesity, malnutrition, depression, smoking and bad oral hygiene.

Dr Amer Al Kindi, health manager at Abu Dhabi Education Council, said there were disturbing health trends in public schools that needed to be urgently addressed.

He said nearly one Emirati girl in seven and one boy in nine are overweight; 75 per cent of children aged 5 and 6 have teeth cavities; one in seven youths smoke; and 23.9 per cent of children between 6 and 15 suffer from a mental-health problem.

Adec wants help from public and private entities to deliver long-term health education services.

“Adec is an education organisation. A lot of health issues in schools are issues that require very highly specialised expertise, which we don’t have and we cannot have,” Dr Al Kindi said.

He released the statistics while launching the School Health Promotion Programmes Initiative, seeking partners to help out in public schools.

“We would like programmes to be implemented by external stakeholders or organisations so that we can evaluate them,” Dr Al Kindi said. “There is a conflict of interest in running your own programme and evaluating yourself.

“We cannot play all roles at the same time.”

Adec already has some partners delivering services to pupils and staff.

The Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, or Seha, recently extended its contract by three years to offer medical services and health initiatives in all public schools.

Dr Najah Mustapha, school health services director for Seha, said the problems could not be solved quickly.

“We have three major initiatives at this time. Obesity is one of them, personal hygiene including oral hygiene, and the third one is smoking,” said Dr Mustapha.

“We have nurses in every single school. They are trying to do their best but health behaviour is not changed overnight.

“They have to have a health curriculum. It has to be part of every single thing that they are studying in school.

“There have to be other stakeholders. If others partner, it will probably lead to a reduction in obesity and other things.

“It’s not that easy. They are trying hard to find solutions.”

Seha provides 345 nurses for the schools.

Other groups to have formed partnerships with Adec include Health Authority Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Police, the Ministry of Interior and the National Rehabilitation Centre.

Not all organisations are paid for providing the services, said Dr Al Kindi.

“It depends on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “We hope that proposals will come from organisations that are not interested in profit but interested in serving the community.”

All public and private organisations, NGOs, universities and people are welcome to submit a health programme proposal on Adec's website, and those approved would be contacted.

“Healthy children learn better,” Dr Al Kindi said.

“Through the School Health Promotion Initiative, Adec will identify suitable health programme proposals and funding sources, and will provide support to organisations that have the technical capability and the commitment to implement these health programmes in schools.”

He said more physical education was also needed. Some schools offered one class each week, and others two, but this was not enough.

“We are not happy with that but the solution is not as easy as you think,” Dr Al Kindi said. “There are a lot of other priorities such as teaching maths, English, science, Arabic and there is limited time in the school.

“So we need to come up with creative solutions, whether we use extra-curricular activities or whether we use community centres in the evening.

“We’re still in the process of conceptualising it.”