• Schools to encourage students to increase physical activity to 150 minutes a week.
• School healthcare staff to receive training on comprehensive child screening.
• All school clinic set-ups in Dubai to be unified
In a move to help implement the comprehensive Dubai School Health Policy, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
DHA developed the five-year policy after extensive consultation with stakeholders including KHDA, Dubai Municipality, Dubai Sports Council etc. with an aim to create a safe, healthy and motivating school environment for pupils.
The MoU with KHDA will support the implementation of the policy, it will aid in unification of important processes such as screening, school health clinic set-up and it will help enhance students’ health and well-being.
HE Humaid Al Qutami, Director-General of the DHA, said: “In line with the vision of our leaders and in line with the DHA Health Strategy 2016-2021, we are keen to provide our community with the highest level of quality health services. School health is undoubtedly an important focus. We recently launched the Dubai School Health Policy after extensive consultation and feedback with various stakeholders including the KHDA. We are pleased to continue our collaboration with KHDA with the common goal of implementing this policy that will unify several school health practices. It will lay the foundation for schools to adhere to certain standards to ensure physical, emotional, social and psychological well-being of school children.”
Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of Knowledge and Human Development Authority in Dubai said: “We are pleased to continue our long-standing partnership with DHA to enhance the well-being of students in private schools in Dubai.”
He noted that the MOU marks an extension of joint efforts between the various working groups to promote healthy lifestyles and sports in all educational institutions.
“The well-being and happiness of our students and the adoption of healthy lifestyles are a priority for our staff. We will continue to work with our colleagues at DHA to support our stakeholders – schools, universities, students, parents, educators and investors – to reach our common goals, and to improve the happiness of our students and our community to achieve the future objectives of the Emirate of Dubai,” Dr Abdulla added.
KHDA will cooperate with the DHA to implement the policy across private schools in Dubai. Some of the areas of collaboration as part of the MoU include:
• Schools should encourage students to increase physical activity to 150 minutes a week.
• DHA will train healthcare professionals on its comprehensive screening programme that includes vision, dental, obesity and mental health screening. The aim is to promote early intervention, unify the screening process, and ensure all schools follow comprehensive guidelines.
• DHA will train school health professionals and academicians on early detection of children with developmental and behavioural disabilities. They will educate them on ways to provide support so that students can thrive in schools to the maximum extent possible. The two entities have already carried out one training session recently and more are underway.
• Unification of clinic set-up in schools: DHA will collaborate with KHDA to ensure that all schools in Dubai follow the same standards for health clinic set up.
• KHDA will support and supervise the implementation of the school health programme in educational establishments.
• Immunization: School clinics will need to enter details of every student’s vaccination record in DHA’s electronic system known as Hasana. Parents will have access to their children’s record through an app.
