Indian secondary students' understanding of different aspects of health

Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) at Mumbai, India, undertook a three year Health Education Programme aimed at finding out students' understanding of different aspects of health and the manner in which they understand the spread of communicable diseases. The first part of this project is presented in this paper. The results indicate that students have a 'poor'/'unsatisfactory' understanding of several aspects- nutrition, social and genetic factors- which affect health. The work carried out on students from different socio-economic backgrounds highlights the poor performance of tribal students coming from remote areas. Considering the magnitude of health problems in India, suggestions regarding science education are put forward, including capitalizing on the 'good' understanding of health issues exhibited by female students.