PESHAWAR, Nov 26: The NWFP government in collaboration with the World Health Organisation is launching a ‘school health service’ to provide basic hygiene education and health facilities to students, say officials.

“The health services will start from the schools of Peshawar and Mansehra early next year,” said an official.

The school health services had been first launched in the province in 2001 in collaboration with WHO, but were discontinued after a few months when the health department withdrew more than 200 medical officers who worked in the government-run schools.

However, upon the persuasion of the WHO, the health department has agreed to restart school health services in the province. Initially, these services will be put in place in Mansehra and Peshawar and will be extended to other districts and the Fata agencies later.

Dr Saeed Akbar Khan, WHO’s operations medical officer for the NWFP and Fata, told Dawn that they had already held a three-day workshop for teachers and lady health workers in Peshawar and similar workshop would also be organised for the teachers of Mansehra-based schools.

He said that the world health agency was concerned about the health of schoolgoing children and was taking measures to improve their health and inform them about the prevention of diseases. For this purpose, he said, the students would be given tips regarding health issues during morning assemblies.

The students would be informed about the significance of hand-washing before and after meal, taking bath and brushing teeth, he added.

Students would also be told about developing their personalities, he added.

He said that the focus would be on primary schools, both boys and girls, where students would be administered vaccines against childhood ailments, besides raising their capacity regarding nutritional matters.

The official said doctors and other health staff would be deputed to schools by the health department for a check-up of students. Teachers, he said, were being trained who would be imparting training to their colleagues.

Initially, the WHO would provide first aid boxes to all schools in both districts and would provide more assistance later, he said.

The official said that in the next phase, more teachers would be trained to cover schools in other districts of the province and Fata.

Meanwhile, the health department in collaboration with the education department and the WHO would develop curriculum for the health of students that would be implemented across the province and Fata, sources said.