Health Education As A Tool For Revamping Academic Perfromance Of Primary School Pupils In Southwest Nigeria

Dr Eunice AlebiosuThe transmission of accumulated knowledge from one generation to another through formal education has led to significant advances in mankinds ability to protect and maintain health. This study presented health education as a tool for revamping academic performance of primary school pupils in Southwest Nigeria. The population consisted of all health education teachers in public primary schools in Southwest Nigeria out of which 1006 health educators were sampled all primary six pupils. Multistage and purposive random sampling techniques were adopted for the study. The instrument used was a questionnaire designed by the researcher and a proformal titled Data Retrieval Format DRF. The reliability of the instrument was ensured by test-retest method using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and a coefficient of 0.86 was obtained. Descriptive statistics of percentage and frequency counts were used to answer the research questions while Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics was used to test the hypothesis generated at 0.05 alpha level. Findings showed that the level of School Health Education in primary schools in Southwest Nigeria was moderate while academic performance of primary school pupils was high. Findings also revealed that there was significant relationship between school health education and academic performance of primary school pupils in Southwest Nigeria. Based on the findings recommendations was made that government health educators curriculum planners and school administrators should design school health education programme that will address current health issues to further boost the level of health education and benefit school pupils and staff.