Almost all Kenyan homes have at least one school-going member. Population estimates indicate that school going persons comprise nearly 25% of the Kenyan population with primary and secondary comprising about 7 Million and 1 Million school-children respectively. This means that the educational platform represents a potent and useful platform to engage the wider community on a range of issues.
CHS partner PATH in the Tuberculosis Accelerated Response and Care activity (TB ARC) held a sensitization meeting in April at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to initiate discussions on improving the depth and expanse of TB, leprosy, and lung disease content in the curricula of primary and secondary schools, as well as teacher’s training colleges. This meeting was held in collaboration with the NTLD-Program and with funding support from USAID under the CHS led TB ARC activity.
The meeting was attended by 126 staff from various departments of KICD. It was facilitated by the NTLD-Program’s Care Section Head and Paediatric TB Coordinator. A question-and-answer session shed light on the need to have more TB awareness, especially in schools. Students were recognized as particularly vulnerable to TB, owing to crowding.
Participants took part in an exercise in which they used a Mythometer, a tool developed to challenge and debunk myths and misconceptions about TB transmission, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. At the end of the session, the curriculum developers had gathered more information on perceptions about TB. The prior attitude of participants showed that a significant amount of stigma was associated with TB. In contrast, TB knowledge was minimal before the session, and a post-test showed that there was still some level of misunderstanding after the session. The results of the post-test indicated that there is need for increased TB awareness among the participants and the general population. This is the rationale behind the inclusion of TB in school curricula.
Enhancing TB content in school curricula will allow for greater interaction and learning between teachers, health promoters, and students, who will in turn pass on TB information to the general population.
Teaching children about cough etiquette can have an impact similar to Global Hand washing Day; it can go a long way in passing on better habits to the masses. including information on health.