Monitoring the health environment in Ukrainian primary schools

Abstract

The article describes the results of monitoring the health environment in primary schools in the Kharkiv region (Ukraine), which was carried out in 2017 and 2018. In the study, school principals of 77 primary schools, 42 (the number of administrative districts in the Kharkiv region) inspectors of educational departments, 462 teachers, and 847 parents of children answered the questions. Through a qualitative model built on this basis, the implementation of the health environment in the primary schools was evaluated. The model was built taking into account organizational, managerial, medical, methodological, pedagogical, and family aspects. Monitoring results indicate that school principals rate the state of the health environment in the primary schools slightly higher than officials. At the same time, the general indicator is at medium and sufficient levels. Together with the general development of the health environment, the analysis revealed a decrease in the development of family and pedagogical aspects (parental involvement in health events, school work of young parents, etc.). The decrease in the level of cooperation with parents is also confirmed by the results of the parents' responses. The smallest number of participants in the study characterized the health environment monitoring system in primary schools at a high-level. We reaffirm the importance of involving all stakeholders in the context of planning, implementation, monitoring, and management of the health environment.