New Delhi The government is tapping the pool of medical college students to conduct regular health check-ups in government schools to reduce the disease burden in future. This follows a directive from the Prime Minister’s Office after reviewing the education and skill development sectors.
The Union Health Ministry along with the National Medical Commission (NMC) has directed all medical colleges to deploy teams of medical students to schools.
“The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has reviewed the Education and Skill Development and one of the points taken care of with respect to the Department of School, Education and Literacy under the heading Implementation of National Education Policy is regular health check-up. And there should be screening of children in schools. Will be done. Technology should be leveraged for this purpose. Students of medical and nursing colleges can be added for this purpose,” said Anita, Secretary, Department of Schools and Literacy in the Ministry of Education Karwal wrote to Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in a letter seen by Mint.
Subsequently, NMC Deputy Secretary Ashish Kumar Panda wrote to the Deans of all Medical Colleges, “It is requested that health check-up of school children to their college interns and PG students, if requested by the respective State/UT Governments. depute to. officials.
When contacted, an NMC official said: “It all depends on the state/UT how they plan the school health check-up for the students. Our medical college students will help them whenever such help is requested by the health authorities of the respective state/UT.”
“We fully support it. We have a school health program going on across the country,” a health ministry official said.
Questions sent to the PMO and spokespersons of the Ministry of Health and Education on Tuesday morning did not elicit any response.
Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM Poshan), formerly known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, is one of the flagship programs of the central government, covering about 118 million students in 1.12 million schools. The scheme provides hot cooked meals to school children on all school days, which aims to address two major problems – hunger and education – for children across India – by improving the nutritional status of eligible children in government schools, encouraging them to go to school. Help them focus on routine and classroom activities.
The Ministry of Health already runs the National Child Health Program (RBSK) with the Ministries of Education and Women and Child Development for children in the age group of 0-6 years and children enrolled in government schools from classes 1 to 12.
Dr. Sanjeev Bagai, President and Renowned Pediatrician, Nephron Clinic said that regular health check-up of children at an early age is an important aspect of preventive health care. “Annual medical check-up of children in schools includes height, weight, blood pressure, BMI, eye examination, dental and ENT and its regular health check-up will help in early diagnosis and intervention and prevent protracted problems later in life. Will be able.”
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