What about this health education?

A few weeks ago, the Patient Ombudsman appealed to Barbara Nowacka to introduce the subject of health knowledge (health education) in schools as soon as possible. This has been a constant demand from patient organizations and experts in both health care and public health for several years. The arguments are clear: if we don't health-educate the new generations, we won't be able to counter the tsunami of problems generated by the public's inappropriate behavior and choices, from issues such as avoidance of immunizations to the epidemic of civilization diseases, including oncology.

The introduction of a separate subject in schools was already advocated in the previous two terms, but the idea supported by the Ministry of Health torpedoed the education ministry. Why? The timetable in schools, both primary and secondary, is extremely overloaded (incidentally, in June of last year, Rev. Arkadiusz Nowak, chairman of the Council of Patient Organizations to the Minister of Health, put the idea of health education replacing one religious lesson under consideration, but the idea was not picked up). This is true, of course - the core curriculum is overloaded, just as the number of hours students spend in desks is a big problem.

Donald Tusk's government claims that health education will be introduced into schools - and quite quickly, but not in the form and at the pace advocated by experts (literally, the day before, at a meeting of another subcommittee, Dr. Janusz Meder very sharply pointed out the delays in this regard when MPs debated the National Cancer Network).

- Undoubtedly, we are facing a challenge related to the health of all of us as citizens, and the key to meeting this challenge is preventive health care, which will not be implemented effectively if we do not have an educated public," Patient Ombudsman Bartlomiej Chmielowiec said at a meeting of the Standing Subcommittee on Public Health. - I can say that I am an exponent of the demands of the entire community of patient organizations to educate children and adolescents as much as possible within the framework of the core curriculum. We dream that at the end they will be able to say that health education is carried out in an exemplary way, but we understand that you can't do everything at once, you have to prepare and step by step implement it," he added.

Health education, the discussion stressed, could stem the rate at which the scourge of obesity is spreading among children and adolescents (representatives of the Ministry of Education have even suggested that they hope to achieve a reversal of the trend in the next few years) or susceptibility to various types of health-related fake news. The Education Ministry plans to have an "old-new" subject in schools in September. Today's "upbringing for life in the family" is to be replaced by "upbringing for life" or rather "knowledge of life" - and it is into its core curriculum that all the health-related topics scattered at the moment will be included, with a strong sex education component.

However, it is worth remembering that this subject is optional, and - moreover - it is taught only in the older grades of elementary school (IV-VIII). If the Ministry of Education would like to change its status and expand the scope of classes, the number of lessons will increase one way or another.