Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of public primary school teachers on school health programme in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria

Background: The National School Health Policy recommends School Based Committee for schools which is responsible for the implementation of school health programmes (SHP). There are not enough medical doctors to deliver healthcare services in the primary schools hence teachers are looked upon to assist in healthcare delivery in schools. Teachers are in a vantage position to facilitate health among school-aged children. Children spend greater part of their time in school and have opportunity to regularly receive instructions in healthy living from their teachers.

Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in 34 public primary schools in Bende Local Government Area (LGA), Abia State. All the primary school teachers (320) in the LGA were studied. Data were collected using pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. Data were analysed using SPPSS version 26 and presented in frequency tables. Chi-square was used to test association between categorical variables. P<0.05 was taken as statistically significant.

Results: Ages of the participants were positively skewed with a mean value of 39.5±6.793 and a skewness of 0.136. From the findings, 204(63.7%) had good knowledge, 124 (38.7%) had positive attitude and 150 (46.9%) had good practice to school health services. There were statistically significant differences between socio-demographic characteristics and good knowledge and positive attitudes. There was statistically significant difference between socio-demographic characteristics and practice of school health services except marital status with a p-value of 0.108.

Conclusion: The participants had good knowledge but negative attitude and poor practice of school health services. There may be need for training intervention studies in school health services to upgrade teachers’ knowledge, attitude and practice. There should be a legislation in the state and country requiring prospective teachers to obtain a diploma in school health services before engaging in teaching profession.