Qualifications of Head Teachers and the numbers of Healthcare Personnel available in Public and Private Schools in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria

Globally, in spite of the fact that school age children do not suffer from the high mortality of preschool children; there exist significant burden of morbidity among them. School health services are the curative and preventive health services, provided for the promotion of the health of school population to enable them benefit maximally from the school system. The aim of the study was to assess the Qualifications of Head Teachers and the numbers of Healthcare Personnel available in Public and Private Schools in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria. A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out to assess school health services in 36 government approved primary (12 public and 24 private) schools within Owerri Municipal LGA. Relevant data was obtained from school head teachers using an evaluation scale and direct observation was done where applicable. The responses were scored using the School Health Programme evaluation scale. Thereafter, a prospective (pre-test – post-test) study was carried out in two public primary schools between May to December 2017 (two academic terms). Within the period (September to December 2017) an intervention was carried out which involved the running of school clinics in two selected public primary schools. School attendances were kept during the pre-intervention and intervention periods using a check off list for monitoring daily attendances and reasons for absenteeism. The overall mean score for School Health Services in Owerri Municipal LGA was 13.14 with the mean scores of 14.42 for private and 10.58 for public schools which were significantly lower than the minimum acceptable score of 19 (p<0.001 respectively). Six (16.7%) schools, all of which were private schools scored up to the minimum acceptable score of 19. The private schools performed better than public schools in practice of School Health Services and their mean difference was statistically significant (p=0.012). School health personnel were available in fourteen (38.9%) schools, out of which one (8.3%) public school had health personnel. School health services in both public and private primary schools within Owerri Municipal LGA is poor and also the availability of health personnel in the scho