Status of the National School Health Policy Framework in Uganda

Abstract

A national school health policy is crucial to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 (health and wellbeing) and 4 (quality education) in Uganda. The World Health Organisation (WHO) put in place the Health Promoting Schools (HPS) model to guide the formulation and implementation of the school health policy among member countries. This chapter examined the status of Uganda’s national school health policy framework and its implementation, based on review of literature including reports and data from public health databases on national school health policy, implementation of the WHO’s HPS model and SDGs 3 and 4, for studies conducted between 2019 and 2024. The findings reveal that Uganda has not yet finalised its school health policy nor fully aligned to the WHO’s HPS model. The country has two unfinalised national school health policies (2008, 2018) and this has among others led to inconsistent and fragmented school health services delivery, presenting difficulty in their documentation, reporting and monitoring of progress, and impeding the adaptation and implementation of the WHO HPS model and, thus, curtailing the country’s progress towards the achievement of SDGs 3 and 4. There is need for a detailed study to help the country identify strategies to help it fast track and complete its school health policy.