Health education at Kitooni primary school, Machakos District, Kenya, with reference to the child-to-child approach - An ethnographic study

Abstract

Background: Health education provides essential information for daily survival. As one of the elements of the child-tochild (CTC) approach, health education is a method of conveying knowledge useful for preventing disease and enabling people to lead a full and normal life. The CTC approach can be used to enable children to practise what they learn in school in terms of health behaviour. Setting and subjects: A study carried out in Kitooni Primary School in Masii location, Machakos District, Kenya, sought to investigate whether the health education acquired in school was put into practice. The purpose of the study was to identify specific applications of the CTC approach in promoting health education among primary school pupils. Methods. Qualitative research techniques using an ethnographic approach were used to gather data for this study. The study sample comprised 7 pupils, 7 parents, 7 younger siblings and 2 teachers. The research tools used to collect data were interviews, observation guides and secondary documents. Results: The results indicated that the CTC approach can be applied in primary schools to enable pupils to translate the health education knowledge acquired in the classroom into health-promoting practices both at home and at school. Pupils indicated a sense of responsibility for their own health as well as that of others. The teachers also felt a sense of responsibility for the pupils’ health when they were at school. Teachers gave encouragement to older pupils so that health education could ‘trickle down’ from older to younger children. Conclusion: In order to be effective, it was necessary for the health education to be presented to pupils in such a way as to enable them to make sense of it and to understand the links between the various sources of health information. The elements of the CTC approach that the teachers found useful were those through which they could reach many young children. The CTC approach is a useful tool for catalysing the process of acquisition and use of health education knowledge.