FIVE school health officials from the Maldives’ Ministry of Health visited Myanmar from August 21 to 25 at the suggestion of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to study school health programs here.

The officials were introduced to a number of school health programs conducted in Myanmar, including those promoting personal hygiene and abstinence from tobacco use.

Myanmar health officials also gave presentations to the visitors on environmental sanitation activities and nutrition promotion activities in schools, said Dr Aung Tun, project manager of the Department of Health’s School and Adolescent Health Project.

“The five-day visit also included excursions to two schools in Yangon, as well as primary schools in Taikkyi township in Yangon Division and Bago, to learn about school health activities there,” he said.

He said Myanmar schools were successful in implementing health promotion programs despite limited resources, adding that local officials should be proud that the WHO recommended that representatives from the Maldives visit the country to get information.

Myanmar started conducting school health programs in 1998, and they have been extended to all townships throughout the country.

One of the visiting officials, Ms Angeela Naseer, school health assistant at Thaajuddeen School in the Maldives, said the visit was intended to get information by observing how school health policies have been implemented here.

“We are now working to promote school health in the Maldives, so we hope to implement these programs in our schools,” she said, adding that the island country currently has no national policy for school health.

“Health topics such as personal hygiene, common diseases and nutrition are approached differently in each school,” she said. “Students sit for exams to test their knowledge, but they don’t know how to apply it in their daily lives.”

Ms Naseer said the presentations in Myanmar gave her and the other visitors many ideas about how to implement health programs in their schools with the support of policy-level officials.

“We have done so many things for school health in our schools but we need support and teamwork,” she said. “One person alone can’t carry out these programs successfully.”