By Caleb Kuleke / Sylvia Sika Afealetey, GNA
Ho, Jan. 23, GNA – Dr Emmanuel Dzotsi, the
Director of Health Services, Oti Region, has said good nutrition enhances
academic performance of children and contribute to their lifelong health and
well-being.
“Healthy students are better learners,” he
said, adding that schools must not only be seen as centres for academic
learning but also supportive venues for the provision of essential health
education and services for children to improve on their health.
The Director, who was speaking at a
stakeholders meeting on the “Nutrition-Friendly Schools Programme” in Ho, said
it had been acknowledged that schools were the ideal places for children and
youth to observe and learn about healthy eating and nutrition.
He said paying attention to the health and
nutrition of school children was paramount as childhood and adolescence were
known to be critical periods for health and development.
Physiological needs for nutrients and
consumption of diet of high nutritional quality also increased during those
periods.
Dr Dzotsi said malnutrition in girls
contributed to increased morbidity and mortality associated with pregnancy and
delivery, and the increased risk of delivering low birth-weight babies, which
also contributed to the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.
He said a healthy and balanced lifestyle was
important for children because optimal eating patterns and habits developed
early in life were more likely to be maintained and have a significant
influence on health and well-being in adulthood.
Thus, it reduced the risk of chronic ailments
such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and type II diabetes.
He maintained that healthy dietary intake and
improved physical activity during childhood and adolescence also reduced the
risk of immediate nutrition-related health problems of primary concern to
school children, namely under-nutrition, over-nutrition including obesity and
dental caries.
He said, though, there was a steady decline in
most malnutrition indicators at the national level, Ghana “is still confronted
with the triple burden of malnutrition: the co-existence of stunting, over
weight/obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies.”
Madam Enyonam Afi Amafuga, the Volta Regional
Director of Education, said issues of health and education could be found at
the core of human development, however the latter would be handicapped if the
former was weak.
She said it was, therefore, important for
stakeholders to pay serious attention to the health issues of children because
education delivery could be optimal if health issues were not ignored by
stakeholders but rather addressed thoroughly.
She said when school children were given right
nutritional meals in schools it would go a long way to keep them in good health
for the academic exertion required of them and therefore urged all stakeholders
to ensure that schools become profound nutrition-conscious centres for the
benefit of children.
Mr Richard Ahiagbede, the Director of
Environmental Health for Volta and Oti Regions, urged stakeholders in the
educational sector to pay attention to schools’ environment by ensuring that it
was kept clean at all times to prevent diseases.
He said nutritional meals could be provided to
school children but if the environment was not kept clean the food would be
contaminated thereby defeating the purpose of the initiative.
GNA