INTEGRATING HEALTH EDUCATION AS A CORE SUBJECT INTO THE SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM: THE FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the status of health education in secondary school settings in Lagos State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire designed for teachers and students on the importance of health education at the secondary schools was used in the study. The sample used for the study was made up of 982 respondents. Stratified random sampling technique was used. Secondary schools in Lagos State were stratified into six using Local Government Areas and a total of nine hundred and sixty two (962) questionnaires were eventually returned. A teacher was also selected from each of the schools. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages were used for demographic profiling of the respondents while Pearson-Chi-Square (X2) was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that the dangers of excluding health education as a core subject in the curriculum of secondary schools in Nigeria were identified; smoking, increase of unwanted pregnancy and abortion, spread of communicable infections, poor healthy living and practices, drug misuse and abuse, inadequate knowledge of pertinent health issues and so on. In conclusion, there have been no plans to facilitate the integration of health education as core subject in Nigerian secondary schools. Efforts to integrate this subject should urgently be sought to avert more challenges in this area