Assessment of the Existing School Health Promotion Program in a Selected Educational Zone, Sri Lanka - Cross - Sectional Study

The health promotion school program was designed to promote the wellbeing of school students. This concept was introduced during the 1980s by the World Health Organization (WHO). In Sri Lanka; it was initiated and implemented in 2008 targeting all government schools. The aim of the study was to assess the existing school health promotion program. The cross-sectional study was implemented in May 2018 with all secondary schools in a selected education zone in Sri Lanka which represent three types of schools, 1AB, 1C and type 2. The study participants were students and teachers. The newly developed tool (Health Promoting School Assessment Tool) was used to assess the existing school health promotion program under six main criteria. The nominal group technique was followed to fill the assessment tool designed in the study where a team of teachers and a team of students separately took part in the assessment. The findings of the study show that the existing health promotion school program is partially unsuccessful in the selected educational zone. The existing situation of the school health promotion program, according to the main six criteria of the Health Promotion School Assessment Tool, was not at a satisfactory level of the implementation (38.2%). Only three schools (N=23) scored more than 50% while other schools (n=20, N=23) were scored less than 50%. According to the assessment, for each group of an individual school, there was a difference between teachers’ assessment and students’ assessment of the overall health promotion program. It is important to conduct continuous monitoring and have an evaluation plan for the school health promotion program to acquire effective changes in school settings.