Governmentand private healthcare professionals are planning to revise grade school and high school textbooks that concern health and science, a privatephysician revealed yesterday.
The doctors also plan to teach health and prevention of diseases in public elementary and high schools during their free time.
In an interview with The STAR, Anthony Leachon, a medical doctor at the Manila Doctors Hospital and member of the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP), said a group of physicians from the PCP and Philippine Medical Association (PMA) are planning to meet with officials of the Department of Education (DepEd), the Department of Health (DOH), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Science and Technology (DOST),Manila City Hall, public schools, and other agencies to discuss plans about the revision of elementary and high school textbooks, and even those for college if necessary.
Leachon, together with other health workers, met with Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim to plan the Valentines Day launch of the government’s Health Education Reform Order or the H.E.R.O. project.
Lim and the group of health workers, including medical doctors, dentists, nurses and DOH officials, held a soft launch of the H.E.R.O. project at the Manila City Hall recently.
“We will be crafting a curriculum that will make it relevant to the public,” said Leachon.
The doctors said current textbooks concerning health are designed for the American environment and do not address the Filipino situation.
The doctors also plan to insert a lesson plan for teachers in the curriculum.
The doctors said that teachers could already teach the children how to avoid or prevent diseases such as dengue, pneumonia, typhoid fever, and other illnesses.
Leachon said one objective way to measure the achievement of reducing the burden of illness in the Philippines through comprehensive health education on disease prevention is to analyze the basic health statistics on morbidity and mortality and see how well the government is able to prevent or control disease.
The H.E.R.O. project aims to strengthen the health curriculum in all school levels and help health professionals be more responsive to the public’s health care needs, Lim said in a statement. – Sandy Araneta