Building School Partnership for Health & Education

1. Technical Meeting on Building School Partnership for Health, Education Achievements and Development Improved access to higher education K C Tang, L West Health Promotion

2. Outline • Strong links between increasing years of schooling and better health outcomes • Limited access to higher education by young people of a lower socio-economic background • Some barriers • Contributions can be made by health promoters

3. Strong links between increasing years of schooling and better health outcomes

5. Swedish national sample (Erikson 2001) Men aged 64 in 1990, who died up to 1996, by education Mortality %

6. An additional 4 years of education • 5 years mortality from 11% to 9.2% • Risk of heart disease from 31% to 28.8% • Risk to diabetes from 7.0% to 6.0% • Number of sick days from 5.2 days to 2.9 days Cutler and Lleras-Muney (2007)

7. Access by low income studentsHow are we measured up (1) ? Access to higher education by low income students In the US, the gap between lower and upper income students remains at the same level as it was more than 30 years www.usafunds.org/about_usa_funds/higher_ed_acess/financial _barriers.htm accessed on 2 June 2007

8. Access by low income studentsHow are we measured up (2) ? Access to higher education by low income students • In China, children's access to higher education Farmers' Vs Non Farmers 5.6:1 Farmers' Vs Government and Party Officials 18:1 (Zhang and Liu 2006)

9. Access by low income groupsHow are we measured up (3) ? Gross tertiary enrolment in selected countries LAC 27% OECD 55% Korea 66% (World Bank 2002)

10. Low income parents do not value higher education as abarrier (1) ? In a survey in the US, people were asked…If you had to choose the one thing that can most help a young person succeed in the world today, would you say it is … • Hispanic parent 65% African parent 47% Anglo parents 33% • "Because we are black. It is the way that society is set up, we are the underdog already, so if you don't have a college education, it is another thing that is against you. (Immerwahr and Foleno, 2000)

11. Low income parents do not value higher education as a barrier (2) ? "In China, higher education is considered a scarce resource." (Zhang and Liu 2006) "The only thing people cannot take away from you is your knowledge. Getting higher education is the only way. (Au 1972)

12. Some barriers • Exclusion "I am a single mother and have another 2 younger children to look after and I can't walk her 15 kilometres one way to school. I need her to help me out at home" • Financial reasons "If you look at me, these are my only clothes, Can I go to school like this?" "I had to go to sea with my parents (who fish for a living)"

13. Some barriers • Slow start – poor learning environment in earlier years • Poor quality schools "high teacher absenteeism, low teacher student ratio, no classroom and not enough text book"

14. Contributions (1) To foster a partnership between health and education • Work with and through schools to promote health (schools as a setting or as an entry point) • Support schools to achieve quality education and support the effort made by the education sector to build schools where there are no schools

15. Contributions (2) Empower low income people to exercise their rights and responsibility for education and health • To empower means to work with people through personal development for self esteem and actualization • To create opportunities for people to exercise influences

16. Contributions (3) Engage in the process of introducing structured changes • Work with and for schools in low income areas for a bigger slice of education resources for achieving, e.g. @ A clean and safe physical environment @ Reduced teaching load and burnt out / drop out rates @Increased support for students and their family to gain a HEAD START on reducing late enrolment, repeat grades and drop out