Food and nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools

Abstract

Purpose The current Indian secondary school curriculum has been criticised for its failure to deliver relevant skills-based food and nutrition education for adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of adolescents, their parents, teachers and school principals on the present food and nutrition curriculum and the role of the schools in developing food skills. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were held with 15 students aged 14-15 years, 15 parents, 12 teachers and ten principals in ten private schools in Kolkata, India. The interview questions were primarily based on the content, merits and demerits of the curriculum. The digitally recorded data were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Findings All the 52 interviewees observed that the food and nutrition curriculum created awareness in students about the importance of healthy eating. However, they also described certain weaknesses of the curriculum. These included lack of practical assignments, an out-dated and a limited curriculum, which failed to initiate critical thinking and was contradicted by sales practices in the school food environment. The interviewees prioritised the inclusion of food skills in the curriculum. Practical implications The emerging evidence suggests the need for the development of a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to encourage healthy eating behaviours among adolescents. Originality/value Most of the work on food and nutrition education has come from developed nations – this is the first study in the Indian context of the secondary school food and nutrition curriculum.

Barriers to Nutrition Promotion in Private Secondary Schools in Kolkata, India: Perspectives of Parents and Teachers

“…This study was a cross-sectional survey that builds on the lead researcher’s (NR) previous food environment and nutrition education research [ 13 , 14 , 17 ]. This was primarily focused on qualitative examination of key stakeholders’ views of the current food and nutrition curriculum, and food services and policies and adolescent food consumption in Kolkata private secondary schools.…”

“…Indeed, recent studies have shown that there is heavy marketing of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods (e.g., French fries) in Indian schools which have limited students’ exposure to healthy foods [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Furthermore, many supply foods at inflated prices, handle foods in an unhygienic manner, and produce misleading nutrition information across the student community [ 14 , 17 ]. This negative assessment of Indian school food services reflects the absence of school food policies [ 14 , 18 , 19 ].…”

Perceptions of eating and food preparation behaviours for urban private school students in India

“…The DALQ was developed using a combination of questions from previous validated instruments (Neumark-Sztainer et al 2003;Savige et al 2007; and three recently conducted qualitative inquiries (Rathi et al 2016(Rathi et al , 2017a(Rathi et al , 2017c. Questions related to vegetarianism, nutrition education, school food services, healthy eating, and food skills comprised the DALQ.…”

Senior Secondary School Food Literacy Education: Importance, Challenges, and Ways of Improving

“…Curriculum overload (or competition with other subjects) is a major challenge faced by food literacy education [ 21 , 27 , 29 ]. As mentioned earlier, this might be reduced by making food literacy subjects compulsory or integrating food literacy concepts into other subjects.…”

“…Thus, exploration of different stakeholders’ opinions regarding the importance of school food literacy education, the challenges associated with this form of education, and ways of overcoming these barriers will provide useful insights for these agents (i.e., agencies and personnel) involved in school food literacy curricula and programme development. The authors designed a preliminary model of stakeholder involvement in secondary school food literacy education ( Figure S1 ) that is based on both Australian and overseas literature related to different groups and sectors interested in school food, nutrition, health education, and associated policies [ 1 , 3 , 13 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. It shows that school food literacy education involves many different stakeholders including school personnel, students and their immediate social networks, food system professionals, government agencies, non-government organizations, private sector industries, and media.…”