Making every school a health-promoting school – Global standards and indicators

Overview

No education system is effective unless it promotes the health and well-being of its students, staff and community. These strong links have never been more visible and compelling than in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A health-promoting school (HPS) approach was introduced over 25 years ago and has been promoted globally since; however, the aspiration of a fully embedded, sustainable HPS system has not yet been achieved, and very few countries have implemented and sustained the approach at scale.

This publication is based on an extensive review of health-promoting school policies, strategies and guidelines from 91 countries in various regions and on expert and public consultations with education and health sector policy-makers, practitioners and researchers around the world.

Stakeholders in all sectors involved in identifying, planning, funding, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the health-promoting approach in schools will find this publication useful for understanding:

• why every school should become a health promoting school and 
• what constitutes a health-promoting school.