The Main Curricular Characteristics of the Health Education Programs and Interventions from the Romanian Primary School Educational System

Abstract

Within this study, we proposed to accomplish an analysis of the main health education programs implemented in our country during the last 20 years. In this regard, a series of health education programs and projects implemented at the primary school level of the educational units in our country were analyzed. We proposed to establish an inventory of the most frequently encountered topics of these programs, in addition to the identification of these programs, their initiators and their main partners. Thus, online searches were conducted in order to identify international, national, regional and local educational programs and projects. The main goal of these programs was the formation and development of health education related behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes. Moreover, a series of documents made by primary school teachers were analyzed, in order to conclude which are the main topics of these educational/ partnership projects initiated in the scope of health education. The study highlights the importance of implementing such interventions, by identifying effective measures that can be taken in order to successfully organize and implement such programs.

Status of Healthy Choices, Attitudes and Health Education of Children and Young People in Romania—A Literature Review

“…There is a paucity of both empirical research and government analysis within the Romanian context that quantitatively assesses the efficacy or impact of health education initiatives. We found some specific examples, such as a comprehensive analysis referring to the Review of 20 Years of Health Education Programs in Romanian Primary Schools [134]. This study talks about The National Program "Education for Health in the Romanian School", which was launched in 2001 and was implemented (since 2004) as an optional discipline; it has been evaluated by an NGO (Save the Children Romania) that stated the impact of this has affected 6% of the child population in Romania [15].…”

“…The authors of this document did not provide the guidelines for its implementation. Schools lack consistent health education programs and must provide age-appropriate frameworks tailored to student needs [134].…”

“…While large-scale initiatives, such as "Healthy Choices" by Save the Children, address important topics (nutrition, physical activity, mental health, sex education, and substance abuse prevention), these are not uniformly implemented. Smaller school-based projects often focus on nutrition, environmental health, hygiene, and healthy habits but lack impact assessment [134].…”