A Study on School Health Activities through a Fact-finding Survey in Korea

Kyung, Yung Hoo; Kim, Myung Ho

Abstract

Aiming to understand the actual grass roots of school health activities in Korea, a fact-finding wurvey was carried out through mailing between 1978-1979 and the study results were summarized as follows: 76.4% of school nurses were less than 30 years old and 58.5% were single. 76.4% of nurses graduated from junior nursing colleges 74.5% and 64.8% were not well oriented in their new jobs. Therefore 59.2% of surveyed schools had small size clinics (less than 355 square feet). Physical examination for pupils were carried out by general practitioners mostly (70.0%). However, the follow-up was done by nurses satisfactorily. Supportive and positive attitudes toward school lunch were different between school principals (35.0%) and classroom teachers (84.5%) in the schools. Principals criticized school lunch program as not helpful for the growth and development of school children (71.0%) and as a waste of budget (18.2%). 52.4% of principals and 31.5% of teachers respecctively explained that school lunch should be provided for all pupils on the one hand and on the other hand 28.7% of principals and 34.3% of teachers gave an other opinion which was provision only for those pupils wanting a lunch. Advantages of school lunch : convenient to cat (42.2%), tasteful food (29.6%) were pointed out and the disadvantages : food is of poor quality (40.3%), not tasteful (32.6%) were also pointed out. In the comparative study between the school lunch demonstration school and the control school (non-school lunch demonstration school and the control school (non-school lunch), height and weight increase of school children and serum protein level were different : however, these facts were either not significant or of minimal significance. In short, the path towards obtaining effective and desirable health services in Korea, of which the school lunch program is only part, is long and arduous and it will require patience and effort to realize this goal.