Teachers told to monitor undernourished students

Aside from their teaching chores, public school teachers are directed by the Department of Education to monitor the health of their students amid reports on the high incidence of malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies, especially among those living in impoverished rural areas and urban slums. Dr. Thelma Santos, director of DepEd's Health and Nutrition Center, said that if teachers would be more observant of their students, they could contribute to the early detection or prevention of illness among students and ease the pressure on DepEd's health workers like herself.

"Our school nurses and doctors cannot tend to all the public school students," she said. "It would lessen the burden of our health professionals if our teachers could also help spot early signs of health problems in their students before the situation could worsen," Santos stressed.

According to the center's latest statistics, 65 percent of public school children below 12 years old have iodine deficiencies, and more than one in three children in the same age bracket suffer from iron deficiency anemia.

Dental caries or tooth decay, traced to poor oral hygiene, is prevalent in 87 percent of school children, the same statistics said.

At least 22 percent of public elementary pupils also have abnormalities in their urine, which the health center said could be signs of urinary tract infections, among others.

Santos stressed that there is a need for teachers to undergo adequate training in the effective teaching of proper and positive health practices.

She added that there is also a need to upgrade the skills and the support given to school health and nutrition personnel, nutrition supervisors and administrators to effectively implement school health and nutrition programs.

She encouraged parents to coordinate closely with teachers with regards to the students' health condition believed to affect their performance in school. - Jasmin R. Uy