A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE USE OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS AS SOURCE OF HEALTH INFORMATION TO PRIMARY FIVE PUPILS IN ONITSHA

Abstract

The family (parents) and the School (teachers) are two major sources of health Information to primary school children. The health information so received by school children are meant to increase their health knowledge. But unfortunately, the health knowledge of school children was still found to be inadequate by various authors (Karangwa,1977; Osujih, 1979). The purpose of this study was to find out the effectiveness of using teachers and/or parents as main sources of health information to primary five school pupils in Onitsha. The study has in addition examined situations under which the teachers and parents could be used as health educators. The effectiveness of teachers and parents as sources of health information to primary five pupils were examined under four different approaches. In the first approach, teachers (alone), who received special preparation in health education, were used as a source of health information to primary five pupils. For the second approach, parents (alone), who received special preparation in health education, were used as a source of health information to primary five pupils. In the third approach, teachers and parents (combined), who received special preparation in health education, were used as another source of health information to primacy five pupils and in the fifth approach teachers and parents, who did not receive special preparation in health education, ware used as sources of health information to primary five pupils (control). The effect of using these teachers and/or parents as sources of health information to the primary five pupils was evaluated by testing the pupils at two stages. For this purpose, a Health Knowledge Test Questionnaire (HKTQ) was developed and used for the pre-intervention and post intervention tests of the pupils. The data were analysed with the computer and a one way analysis of variance (Anova) was the statistical tool used to test the hypotheses. On the whole, teachers and parents (separately or combined) who received special preparation in health education were found: to be of a source of health information to primary five pupils. But in all the three socio-economic groups, pupils whose teachers received special preparation in health education performed significantly better than pupil whose parents received the same special preparation in health education. Also, among teachers, pupils whose teachers received the special preparation in health education performed significantly better than pupils whose teachers did not receive the special preparation. Among parents, pupils whose parents received the special preparation in health education performed significantly better than pupils whose parents did not receive such special preparation. The primary five pupils whose teachers and parents (combined) received special preparation in health education did not perform significantly better than pupils whose teachers (alone) received the special preparation. Educational level of parents was found to be an important factor in their ability to give health information to the pupils. Educated parents performed better than the illiterate parents as source of health information to the pupils.