HEALTH AND SAFETY IN INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS: A PUBLIC–PRIVATE COMPARISON BASED ON UNICEF’S INCLUSIVE EDUCATION CRITERIA

Abstract

Safe, healthy and inclusive school environments have been found to be a pre-condition to fair education systems. Based on this, this quantitative study analyzed health and safety practice in the public and private inclusive institutions, with pointers following the criteria of Standards & Indicators of Inclusive Education prescribed by the UNICEF. The conformity rates were summarized with descriptive statistics and the differences between the institutions of the public and the private ones were tested with the help of chi-square tests. The results show that the two sectors recorded high levels of compliance on some of the structural and policy related indicators such as sanitation management, safety orientation, non-discriminatory rules, and secured school environments. Nevertheless, private institutions at all times fared better than the public institutions in terms of emergency preparedness measures such as the availability of first aid facilities, trained staff and availability of medical support. It is also important to note that in both sectors, the compliance was low on the indicators that touch on nutrition, such as the provision of meals, trained kitchen personnel, and food storage facilities, which implies that systemic weaknesses are common. The article concludes that despite the mode of primary safety precaution being mostly accomplished, nutrition service and emergency health preparedness have huge gaps, especially by state institutions. To promote safe and inclusive learning and education environments in accordance with international education and child well-being practices, it is crucial to strengthen integrated school health policies, resources allocation, and capacity of institutions.