Over 2 million children were dewormed across 21,000 schools in 2009. The Government of Andhra Pradesh launched a statewide, school-based deworming program and piloted it in six districts, with the remaining districts to be reached as the program goes to scale in 2010-11. At least one teacher from each school and one auxiliary nurse/health worker from each primary health center were trained on school health and deworming.
The Andhra Pradesh School-based Deworming Program is led by the Department of Health, Medical & Family Welfare, Department of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All), and Department of Education. This program created the first school health collaboration between state education and health departments, and established the foundation for a comprehensive statewide school health program, including deworming, launched in 2010.
| “Evidence has shown that deworming reduces school absenteeism by as much as 25 percent. Over the long term, children persistently infected with worms earn 43 percent less as adults. I commit that the School Education Department will reach out to every child through this program." – Sri Manikya Vara Prasad, Education Minister for Secondary Education of Andhra Pradesh |
DtW Support for Andhra Pradesh
DtW, in partnership with the World Bank, advocated for the adoption of school-based deworming in Andhra Pradesh. DtW supported the government to launch and scale up the program, beginning with the development of school health policy that featured deworming as its flagship program and continuing on to include:
- Providing technical and operational assistance for all steps of the program by developing work plans, budgets and implementation schedules; undertaking surveys and training local teams to assess worm prevalence; advising on the design of community awareness campaigns; developing and tailoring training materials and training the master trainers for teachers; and designing and supporting the monitoring and evaluation process.
- Leveraging resources by making specific strategic investments in the program, including launching the community awareness campaign by featuring a government school-based deworming tableau in the popular Independence Day parade, facilitating drug donations and covering drug shipment costs. Another example includes our investment in prevalence surveying, including training a government technician to become the lead quality and control coordinator for the state. This strategic support leveraged the significant funding allocated by the government to ensure program sustainability.
- Strengthening program coordination and partnerships, resulting in the establishment of the State School Health Coordination Committee led by the three government departments of health and education. This marked their first collaboration on school health.
Print This Page
