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27 June 2005 Reaching
the WHO standards
¡@¡@The Hong Kong Healthy Schools Award Scheme builds on the concept of health promoting school to encourage educational achievement, better health and emotional well-being; thereby supporting students in improving the quality of their lives. The Scheme is the first territory wide 'Healthy Schools' movement that recognized by WHO Western Pacific Regional Office in meeting the WHO standards. There are now 57 primary schools, 35 secondary schools and 11 special schools from different districts joining the Scheme. In the past two years, 27 local schools have been presented Silver and Bronze Awards. This year, a total of 26 schools will be presented "Hong Kong Healthy Schools Award" including 3 Gold, 9 Silver and 14 Bronze. Please refer to Appendix I for the list of awardee schools. The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) of the Government of the HKSAR together with the Centre are the awarding bodies. ¡@¡@A sampling student health survey was conducted for those primary and secondary schools which joined the Scheme for two years and attained an award. The findings revealed that lower proportion of students had depressive symptoms and suicidal ideas. Regarding the bullying problem among students, lower proportion of students involved in fighting and had property being stolen or damaged. Regarding the health risk behaviour problem, lower proportion of students ever smoked in the month before the survey conducted. For details, please refer to Appendix II. ¡@¡@On the other hand, another study of the schools that have undergone school audit demonstrated that the improvement of the student health risk behaviours was found to be associated with a number of factors. The mental health of students was correlated with schools which have close communication with parents and promote the development of students' skills in leadership, communication, inter-personal relationship, including self-esteem. ¡@¡@Mr. Yip Yam-wing Stephen, Chief Curriculum Development Officer (Life-wide Learning and Library Section) of EMB congratulated all the awardees for their outstanding achievement in promoting student and community health. Mr. Yip added, "In order to foster a holistic development for students, we believe schools should play a larger role other than simply being a facilitator of knowledge transference. They should also assist students to establish a healthy lifestyle, and cultivate a positive mindset and value for our children so that they can become the future pillars of our society. We are glad to know that the Centre for Health Education and Health Promotion of the Chinese University of Hong Kong is planning to extend the Healthy Schools Award Scheme to the pre-school sector and we wish the Scheme every success." ¡@¡@Professor Albert Lee, Director of Centre for Health Education and Health Promotion, the Chinese University of Hong Kong also congratulated the awardees for their outstanding achievement, "The fruitful results of promoting student health achieved by the local schools have been worldwide recognized and appreciated. As well, our experience in developing health promoting schools has become the good models to be shared with many health education and health promotion professionals from other countries." Professor Lee also stated that the Centre is launching the Healthy Schools (Pre-Schools) Award Scheme so as to continue the efforts in promoting health and creating a healthy living environment for our next generation in hands with schools, families and members of the society. ¡@¡@A formal award presentation ceremony is scheduled later on this year.
Mental Health
*P value<0.05 Bullying
*P value<0.05 Health Risk Behaviour
*P value<0.05
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