Dengue eradication programs:

Students' role highlighted

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The participation of schoolchildren in dengue eradication programs was highlighted by Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane recently.

He said the ongoing program will be streamlined and strengthened during this year, to also fulfill the Government's endeavour of creating a healthy society.

Addressing a seminar on Cleaning school environments', organised by teachers and children of Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala, Minister Gunawardane said children should be partners in the country's health development activities in addition to carrying out their school education.

He said children from all schools took part in various health improvement and environmental cleaning campaigns in their schools last year with the help of health authorities from the area.

The Minister thanked schoolchildren for keeping their school compounds clean and said such cleaning programs should be continued alongside educational activities.

Quoting Health Department statistics, Minister Gunawardane said the Government spends a colossal sum of money every year to improve the health condition of the over 4.2 million schoolchildren in the country.

"We have also decided to establish dental clinics and spectacle distribution programs in every school before the end of this year, so that children will not have to go to other schools for this purpose," he said.

He said children will also be encouraged to participate in regular health camps, conducted in their schools with the help of medical officers, so that other diseases of children could also be identified and steps taken to cure them.

The Sunday Observer spoke to several principals and teachers of many schools in Colombo including Royal College, Ananda College, Visakha Vidyalaya, Nalanda College, DS Senanayake Vidyalaya and Mahanama College and several schools in Kandy, Galle and Ratnapura districts.

They said most of their students are regularly engaged in school compound cleaning programs to destroy mosquito breeding grounds.

A senior Education Department official in the Kalutara District, A.P. Premasiri told the Sunday Observer that most children in the district take part in regular cleaning of mosquito breeding places in their schools and no complaints regarding dengue patients have been reported from the area for a long period.