KARACHI, Feb 2: The Sindh government has planned to reorganize and implement the much-neglected School Health Service (SHS) from the next academic session.

According to the sources, Sindh Chief Secretary KB Rind has directed the officials concerned to prepare a comprehensive strategy for utilisation of the funds available under the school health service which was originally launched in 1954 for prevention and control of diseases in school-going children. It has so far failed to come up to expectations for want of funds.

There are other factors that hinder the service, like lack of coordination between the SHS and other programmes working for primary health care, inadequate teacher preparation and lack of community/family participation.

This programme was started throughout Sindh. At that time it was supported by the World Health Organisation. In 1987 the programme was relaunched; it was considered a potential source to absorb unemployed doctors. Until 1987 the number of school health clinics set up in the province was 30, it now stands at 1288.

The Sindh education department has agreed to provide Rs24 million to the health department annually for providing medicines to school-going children. The share of the Karachi division will be over Rs2 million for about 0.3 million students enrolled with government primary schools.

This decision was conveyed at a meeting presided over by the chief secretary. An earlier meeting was told that the budget for provision of medicines to school-going children in Karachi, where 250 doctors are working under the SHS programme, is only Rs0.72 per child per annum, while on the dental services the cost would be Rs8 per child.

The chief secretary took a serious view of the situation and discussed the matter with Secretary Education Nazar Hussain Mahar, who agreed to provide Rs8 per child per year from the education department to the health department for provision of health services to school-going children.