Unhealthy schools

Only 25 percent of children are born healthy in Ukraine. A recent study by the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine suggests that only 10 percent of teenagers leave school absolutely healthy. This number shrinks further by nearly half after young adults serve in the army and study at colleges and universities.

When doctors and psychologists analyzed the problem more thoroughly, they found that 80 percent of Ukrainian schools do not meet public health standards and unwittingly harm children. Over one-half of comprehensive schools, especially in large cities, are overcrowded with pupils.

Yet even classrooms that do not have too many children are often cramped and dark and most do not offer hot meals, daytime sleeping rooms for younger pupils, playrooms, and equipment for after-school groups. Only one-third of Ukrainian schools have these indispensable elements of normal schooling.

According to Oleksandra Savchenko, the vice-president of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, hygiene standards at schools are below the norm. Effective school education has been replaced with intensive education. As a result, all schoolchildren without exception suffer from chronic overwork and fatigue.

First-graders have the hardest time of all. According to official medical statistics, at six or even seven years of age only a little over one-half of all preschool children are ready for intensive study. As a result of the unselective formation of first grades, children who are not prepared fall behind in their studies, turning into underachievers and outcasts. Yet even those who are prepared for learning have weak energy reserves and often find it difficult to cope with the educational load.

“School days are increasingly turning into a monotonous exercise of sitting at desks,” says Oleksandra Savchenko. “Given the large number of disciplines and long school days, no change of activity is offered, and children simply have no opportunity to move actively — especially children in junior school.”

As a result, congenital defects develop and then turn into diseases. Hardest hit are the musculoskeletal system and posture, eyesight, airways, and the endocrine system. Educators and doctors point out that the standard daily educational load in Ukraine exceeds the allowable norm by one to three hours. A child is forced to study for nine or ten hours at school and then spend additional hours on homework. Ukrainian fifth-graders now traditionally take six to eight subjects. At 10 years of age a child studies 17 — 18 different subjects. This leaves no time to address children’s health concerns.

At the same time, an absolute majority of schools has no medical personnel. If a child feels sick at school, s/he will be excused from classes, or an ambulance will be called in the worst case. Meanwhile, 10 or 15 years ago most schools had a minimal of medical services, nurses, and pediatricians, who could diagnose a child’s developing condition and administer the necessary preventive treatment. Now children get to see a doctor when they are already sick.

There are dismal statistics on the unhealthy lifestyles of teenagers. According to data collected by the Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology, the average age when schoolchildren start to smoke is 10 years in Kyiv, 9 years in Lviv, and 11 — 12 years in the countryside. Most disorders, such as failing eyesight, stunted growth, nervous, endocrine, and digestive disorders, are closely linked to smoking. Some 75 percent of children are born with a disposition to such disorders, while consumption of nicotine or alcohol at a later age triggers these disorders.

Genetic heredity largely determines the nation’s health. The only effective program of genetic development in Ukraine has been closed for lack of funding. According to Andriy Serdiuk, who heads the Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology, scientists working in this program detected possible genetic deviations in embryos at the stage of family planning.

Thanks to this research, there has been a significant reduction in the number of Ukrainian children born with developmental defects. Thousands of lives have been saved. Over 300 births of healthy children were registered last year in Kyiv alone. However, in a recent survey over 38 percent of teenagers and students admitted that they viewed their health unsatisfactory.

Teachers and doctors do not know how to remedy the situation, and there are no handy recipes. The health of the future generation requires a comprehensive approach. At the same time, we must not disregard the fact that adults and children have absolutely different worldviews and reserves of strength. As long as children depend on adults, the latter must tune their world to the children’s wavelength.