(Baonghean.vn) - School health plays an important role in schools. However, this work is currently facing many difficulties due to lack of human resources, lack of investment and policies that do not ensure that health workers can confidently stick with their profession.
Nghe An High School for the Gifted in Sports is one of the special schools with nearly 400 students at both levels, namely Middle School and High School. Students studying at the school are all athletes currently training at the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center or Song Lam Nghe An Football Club. Photo: My HaWith its own characteristics, the school health work at this school is especially important when it has to regularly check, monitor and support athletes in health check-ups, ensuring that athletes have the best physical condition during the learning and training process. In the photo: A propaganda session on common diseases when the weather changes. Photo: My HaMs. Nguyen Thi Tu is a school health worker. While in other schools, health check-ups and consultations for students are not often done, at the High School for Gifted Sports, this is a regular task. Sharing about this, Ms. Tu said: For students at our school, training is considered the most important task. According to the schedule, students usually have to wake up early to practice and then go to school. During the peak period of competition preparation, the school schedule is more "tight", so it is normal for students to come to school tired and have skin injuries. Almost every day, we have students come to the health room for support. Photo: My HaFor students at a sports school, even a small change in health can affect their training and competition. Another difference is that most students here live far from their families, they live in dormitories and take care of each other. Therefore, the support of school health workers will help them feel more secure when they go to school. Photo: My HaIn addition to providing health care, health workers also regularly meet with students outside of class. Here, the number of students is small, so teachers, students and school health workers seem to consider each other as family. Photo: My HaSchool health care in kindergartens is also very important because at this age, weight monitoring, nutritional indicators and health checks must be done regularly. At Nam Giang Kindergarten (Nam Dan), the school is lucky because it currently has a qualified school health worker in charge. Photo: My HaHaving worked at this school for 12 years, Ms. Dang Thi Tinh shared that she has been working in school health for two main reasons, partly because of her love for the job and partly because of her family circumstances. Photo: My HaAccording to current regulations, school health workers, in addition to their salary, receive a special allowance of 20%/month. The allowance is small, while the work is a lot, so the number of health workers working in schools is not much. Ms. Dang Thi Tin herself, with an income of about 6 million VND/month, said that her family's living expenses are not enough. More than 5 years ago, she applied for a visa to work abroad with her husband. However, she later decided to continue to stay to serve in the education sector. Her husband went far away, leaving her alone at home to raise 2 young children, using her students and children as motivation to try to overcome difficulties every day. Photo: My HaIn addition to providing health care, school health workers at Nam Giang Kindergarten also act as storekeepers and check food hygiene and safety for daily meals. Photo: My HaSchool health workers are an indispensable part of schools with many tasks such as first aid and disease prevention propaganda. However, at present, in many schools in Nghe An, this department is lacking in many schools for many reasons such as no staff, no budget for contracts. Photo: My HaIn reality, due to lack of human resources, there are two current situations: medical staff have to take on many other tasks of office staff. Or conversely, there are schools, because there are no medical staff, office staff, clerks, equipment staff take on this task even though they do not have expertise. Photo: My HaAt Hong Son Secondary School - Vinh City, for nearly a year now, the school has only contracted a school health worker. With a salary of 4.5 million VND/month, Ms. Le Thi Thanh Huong - a school health worker said: In the city, the contract salary is not enough to cover living expenses and most health workers have to have a second job to increase their income. On the school side, not having enough staff and having to contract more health workers will also lead to difficulties when the budget is limited and the team is unstable. This reality also occurs throughout the province and it is inevitable that many contract health workers will quit their jobs to switch to other jobs. Therefore, recruiting and contracting health workers for school health workers is even more difficult. Photo: My Ha
According to the Department of Education and Training, the province has more than 1,500 schools, but only 640 have full-time medical staff and 881 schools are using part-time staff. The number of schools with medical classrooms is 1,395. The rest are using them with other departments. The schools do not have the funds, machinery, and modern equipment to serve health check-ups for students.
From these shortcomings, the Vietnam Education Trade Union recently visited a number of schools in Nghe An to grasp the thoughts, feelings, and suggestions of school staff, including school health workers. From there, it synthesized recommendations to send to relevant departments and sectors to adjust appropriate policies in the coming time.
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