Testing eight global indicators to support School Health
Time: 9am-12pm, March 10th Room: Rosedown
Description of Session Edit Description of Session
Ensuring that children are healthy to learn and learn to be healthy while inschool is essential for achieving Education for All goals and other MDGs.At the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000,international agencies agreed on a common framework for school health and called it FRESH: Focusing Resources on Effective School Health. The FRESH Framework recommends that the four following components (program pillars) be addressed in all schools:
1. Equitable school health policies
2. Safe learning environment
3. Skills-based health education
4. School-based health and nutrition services
Over the years, a growing number of governments and international agencies have begun implementing school healthin a more comprehensive way, which is increasingly reflective of the FRESH framework (PCD, 2007). Despite this growth, until recently, no internationally agreed guidance on how to monitor and evaluate school health programs existed. A participative review of M&E of school health conducted by the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) and Save the Children in August 2008 highlighted the need for more guidance. A FRESH M&E Coordinating group, representing 12 international agencies, was created in September 2008, at the first of three meetings of FRESH partners (hosted in turn by WHO, UNESCO and PCD), to lead the development of international M&E guidance for school health. The guidance is now available for review on www.unesco.org/new/health-education. The guidance has two parts: Part 1 recommends eight core indicators (one national and one school level indicator per FRESH pillar) to assess and monitor national level progress in implementing a comprehensive school health program, specifically the four FRESH pillars mentioned above. Part 2 focuses on program level M&E and includes around 150 thematic school health indicators, drawn largely from existing M&E guidance and organized by health topic. This workshop led by members of the FRESH M&E Coordinating group provides a unique opportunity for participants to not only learn about school health and what is meant by the four FRESH pillars but also provide feedback on the core indicators and data collection tools.
The objectives of this workshop are to:
a) Raise participants’ awareness of the importance of school health, as an essential element for achieving MDG2 and other MDGs, and familiarize them with the four FRESH pillars and eight core indicators of school health
b) Test the eight core indicator data collection tools (checklists) using real country scenarios and learn what the four pillars of school health mean in practice.
c) Make recommendations for improvement of the eight core indicator definitions and data collection tools (checklists) before the guidance is finalized in late 2013.
Target audience:Education practitioners and researchers, government, national and international agency representatives.
Instructional Goals: by the end of the workshop, participants will:
1) List and describe the four pillars of school health
2) Analyze and recommend improvement to the core FRESH indicators and data collection checklists.
3) Develop skills to advocate for school health, with the core FRESH indicators as an essential tool
Workshop activities:
1) Presentation by the FRESH M&E Coordinating group members of the FRESH Framework (history, rationale and four pillars) and the eight core indicators, followed by questions and discussion
2) 4 groups organized by FRESH pillar (or 8 groups by core indicator, depending on numbers), use the indicator data collection tool (checklist) to assess progress of a specific country (country scenario and documents will be provided) towards implementing that FRESH pillar.For school level indicators, this will involve some role playing. Each group notes questions and issues that arise and suggestions for improvement as they work through the checklists
3) Feedback and suggestions from each group summarized in plenary and compiled by workshop leaders
4) Distribution of draft FRESH M&E guidance to all participants
(b)Instructional Staff:
Natalie Roschnik, Save the Children, e-mail: nroschnik@savechildren.org
Anna-Maria Hoffman, UNICEF, e-mail: amhoffmann@unicef.org
Scott Pulizzi, UNESCO, e-mail: s.pulizzi@unesco.org
Sonal Zaveri, the Child to Child Trust, e-mail: sonalzaveri@gmail.com
Bradford Strickland, American Institutes for Research, e-mail: BStrickland@air.org
Mohini Venkatesh, Save the Children, e-mail: mvenkatesh@savechildren.org |
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