Children's acquisition of health knowledge through compulsory primary schooling in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper investigates the health knowledge of children in Bangladesh completing the five-year cycle of compulsory primary education. Data were taken from a nationally representative sample survey of 2509 children who came from 186 schools. Eight health knowledge items, available in the textbooks and corresponding to four primary level terminal competencies, were included in the assessment instrument. The analysis revealed that overall performance of the students was poor and they did not acquire acceptable levels of health knowledge. A wide variation in the knowledge of different items was also found, from 28.5 to 69.1 per cent. The students who were younger in age, affiliated with the urban schools, with educated parents and access to mass media, were more likely to have better health knowledge. There was, however, no gender variation. With high and increasing enrolment at primary level, there is a strong case for more and effective utilisation of the opportunity to foster health education in Bangladesh.

Key words:

• primary schools
• health education
• Bangladesh