Health Minister Dr. Keheliya Rambukwella says that the closure of schools due to the global Covid pandemic has affected the physical and mental health of children .
The Minister also pointed out that the psycho-social behavior of children affect their overall well-being.
This was stated by Minister Keheliya Rambukwella at a conference on the World Health Organization’s inter – ministerial meeting to revitalize School Health Promotion Program in Southeast Asia region, using Zoom Technology today (12).
Representing all the Ministers of Health and Education in the region the Minister of Health Dr. Keheliya Rambukwella proposed the “Call for Action to promote School Health” in this meeting. Through this initiative, all the schools in the South East Asia region will be made as health promoting school. Ministers of 11 countries together with World Health Organization, UNESCO,UNICEF,UNFPA and WFP participated in this conference today and the meeting will continue till 14th of October.
It emphasizes that the farther away children are from school, the harder it will be for them to return to school, and therefore the greater the risk of losing the gains and achievements that they have made in increasing their access to education in recent decades.
Furthermore, It is more important to reopen all the schools in compliant with health guidelines which have been introduced by the World Health Organization. Therefore it must have strong interoperability between the Health and the Education sector.
Representing Sri Lanka Hon.Dinesh Gunawardhana , Minister of Education and Hon.Keheliya Rambukwella ,Minister of Health addressed the conference.
The Health Minister appreciated the relentless efforts taken by the World Health Organization in this reagrd.
He was of the view that a combination of the Ministries of Health and Education is very important and effective to promote the good health system in all the school in South and South East Asian Region.
“All the community is well aware of how to prevent from the Covid-19 and the teacher skills and parental awareness are also essential to promoting school health and social development, the Minister said
