1.0 Introduction
Food is the most important resource for our body, it
provides us energy. Not only that, it also helps our body develop, and grow.
Healthy eating means eating a variety of foods that give the nutrients we need
to maintain our health, feel good, and to have energy. These nutrients include
protein, carbohydrates, fat, water, vitamins, and minerals. Nutrition is
important for everyone. But we need to have a healthy eating pattern in order
to maintain our good health and well-being. It is a lifetime benefit of good
health and well-being if we were to maintain healthy eating patterns. Healthy
eating should start from childhood. Most research shows that most adults that
are obese began from an overweight child.
Physical activities are also important for growing healthy
and for development. It also plays an important role in the well-being, quality
of life and health of the students. Having regular physical activities during
childhood helps develops bone density, cardiovascular fitness and their
strength. Benefits from being active physically, can prevent chronic diseases
later in life. Also, if routine physical activities are done it can prevent
children from becoming obese.
Since the 1980’s, lesson has been conducted through our
curriculum in the subject “Pendidikan
Jasmani dan Kesihatan”. In this subject, students were taught on healthy
eating and how to perform physical activity. These two subjects are a must to
be bounded together. Physical education needs to be taught in order for the
students in boosting their development. It is through physical activities that
children learn on how to stay fit and healthy. Besides having their body
healthy, it also helps their brain to function efficiently. When the brains
functions efficiently, therefore, the students will be able to think better and
decreases stress. Physical education also benefits the children socially and
psychologically. In a social way was when during the activities are conducted;
students will be amongst groups of other students and perhaps from other races
will help them attain friends. Having healthy relationship with other people
will help us understand and respects their cultures and beliefs.
As stated on how it is important to have healthy eating and
physical activities to be conducted side by side, where else better to start
than in school, be it primary or secondary.
2.0 Analysis on
current dietary habits and physical activity behaviours in SKPP(1)
An interview and observation was made with the cooperation
of Puan Azizah bt Ayub, Senior Assistant of Student Affairs in Sekolah
Kebangsaan Puteri Pandan (1). When asked on how are the eating habits of the
students in the school, she said, observation from her side are that, during recess, 80% of the
students will buy their food from the school canteen whilst the other 20%
brings home cooked food. For students that came early from home will usually
take their breakfast at the school canteen. After school, for students that are
picked up late either by parents or by their school transport, will buy snacks
from the school canteen. She further explains that, most of the students here
will bring pocket money of at least RM3 to RM5 per day. But, there are students
who do not take their meals at school even during recess. When they are asked
why, the answer is just they don’t have the appetite.
The students in the school prefers eating hotdogs, nuggets
and French fries rather than the usual ‘kuih – muih’ consisting of curry puff,
‘pau’ and ‘seri muka’ that are sold by the school canteen. During recess, when
observed, the students mostly will opt for ‘nasi lemak’ and ‘laksa’. The school
canteen does sell ‘rojak buah’, ‘bihun sup’ and ‘mee goreng’.
Puan Azizah added that, the school does sell fruits at one
time, but it is not a favourite between the students. So eventually, they stop
selling them. But then, she asks them to substitute it with fruit drinks in
order for the students to get the needed nutrition.
That is the reason why, most of the food sold, consists of
what the students prefer to eat and not what they should eat.
The students during recessed, when observed does the normal
activities children do. Skipping, playing games such as skipping rope, ‘tukar
tiang’ and ‘teng-teng’. Puan Azizah said that the school conducts their own
co-curricular activities in order to keep the children active. They will also have
their co-curricular activities every Wednesday after school. Participation from
the students are gratifying. Besides that, they will have “Pendidikan Jasmani
dan Pendidikan Kesihatan” twice a week during lesson.
3.0 Current implementation of
health and physical education in SKPP (1)
Puan Azizah explained when asked what
are the implementations that are done in the school to promote healthy eating
and for the students to be active in physical activities, she said that good
eating habits and physical education is inserted inside the curriculum itself,
‘Proses PNP’. As referred to one KBSR text book for Year 5, there are a topic
that covers on good eating habits. Puan
Azizah further explains, that the school will held a “Program 3K’ once a year.
The program is an overall programme that covers the topics on health, hygiene
and safety. During the held programme, they will invite lecturers from outside
to give talks to the students on ingestion and on good eating habits. They will
also have another programme that is done once every week. That is “Slot
Keselamatan Makanan. This slot started in 2011, and the main purpose is to
inform the students on what kinds of food that is safe to take. This is another
effort by the government, Puan Azizah added in ensuring that the students are
well aware of the food that they are taking each day, what are the goodness and
also the downside of it. It also teaches the students on food poisoning and why
does it occurs. For this slot, the government has provided a booklet “Nota
Keselamatan Makanan” [Appendix A] on
what the school should talk about each time this slot is held. The school also
has an implementation schedule on healthy eating habits. The purpose is to
ensure that instructions on the schedule is implemented and followed
religiously throughout all the individuals in the school.
Our government has been putting
efforts in promoting healthy eating in schools and setting out guidelines on
how the school should implement healthy eating. The Ministry of Health has
published several books on guidelines for the school to follow. Such as “Panduan Nilai Kalori 200 jenis makanan”,
“Garis Panduan Pelaksanaan Program Vitamin 1Malaysia di Sekolah Rendah” and
“Pengurusan Kantin di Sekolah”.
No exception for SKPP (1), Puan
Azizah implemented healthy eating through these guidelines that are given by
the government. “Panduan Nilai Kalori 200
jenis makanan” [Appendix B] is
to advice the teachers on what and how much calories there are in different
kinds of food. Also, the booklet also gives the advantages to both teachers and
students on what kind of food intake that they should have that is not high in
calories. From these guidelines, both teachers and students will be able to
assess on their own the amount of calories on what they are eating.
Furthermore, with this guideline, the school will be able to prepare proper
menu that ought to be served for the students in the school.
Besides that, there are guidelines on
15 types of food that are not to be sold at school and the list of 70 types of
food that are limited to be sold in school.
“Pengurusan Kantin di Sekolah” is another guideline given by the government. The purpose is
to manage the cleanliness of the canteen be it on the foods or the premise
itself. Puan Azizah received the new booklet on these guidelines on 18 January
2012. Besides that, Puan Azizah added the school also puts up posters all
around the school about eating healthy and the goodness of it and also on the
school bulletin board on health information.
When asked how and what are the roles
of the teachers in the school in implementing healthy eating habits for the
students, she explained that they implement it through curriculum during class
schedule on “Pendidikan Jasmani dan Kesihatan”.
Back to physical education done in
the school, the only implementation done is during PE lessons and on
Wednesday’s during the after school’s co-curricular session.
4.0 Strength and weaknesses
on the implementations done
As observed, the implementation done
by the school is appropriate. Steps given by the government are followed and delivered
to the students in accordance to the guidelines. But the methods done even if
it is by routine, the subject are not stressed out and a child has the tendency
to quickly forget. The method of having posters on school walls and put up on
bulletin board is good but how often do you see a student stop to just read the
notice and posters? Also, when observed at the canteen, food sold there some of
them are listed under the list of food that are not encourage to be sold to
students in school. Even as said by Puan Azizah, the food sold at the canteen
is monitored by the school but it is not emphasized thoroughly to the canteen
operators. What is seen is that, they are likely to sell food items that are
profitable to them without the concern of what the children are supposed to
eat. It is a good thing that the school also has an implementation schedule on
good eating habits but even if the schedule is done accordingly but not
emphasized, and then the goal is not achieved. The implementation is handled
only by the HEM herself, maybe due to the amount of students of only 260 people
[Appendix C]. Therefore the goal
cannot be fully grasp. Proper documentation is not available, as the school
only implement it through booklets given by the government. On the physical
activity side, intensively done only on Wednesday during their co-curricular
activities and during the school’s 1 Student 1 Sport session or on any other
day that the students has their 30 minutes to 1 hour lesson of PE is the only
physical activities that are implemented in the school. The 1 Student 1 Sport policies [Appendix
D] that was implemented in schools, by the government is to be conducted
alongside the normal co-curricular activities that are currently executed. This
is to ensure that all school children to be active and participating in sports.
The school has organized a committee for these purposes and had prepared a
schedule on what is to be followed when the activity is conducted [Appendix E & F] During these
sessions, the school teaches the students on the basic movement of sport games
in order to develop student’s motor skill towards the game also physical activities taught in school are according to the
student’s capability and age. This is to help the students acquire the needed
skills to be used in any sports activity or in their daily routine throughout
their life. For example teaching the students to throw balls in groups in
various ways teaches them the very basic movements in volleyball or netball.
Another example such as having the students walk from one end to another while
balancing beanbag on their heads, is teaching them to balance their walk either
for gymnastics. As in gymnastics, they will need to know on how to balance
their body on a balance beam.
5.0 Suggestions
on strengthening the implementation into promoting healthy eating and physical
activities.
In order to promote healthy eating
the school needs to take extra effort and time to emphasize the needed
information and strategies to students, teachers and also canteen operators.
First off they will need to set up a menu according to the food pyramid for the
student as well as to make it profitable for the canteen operators. Focus more
in choosing food that are rich in nutrients. Always encouraged the students to
choose food that are healthy for them, such as, colourful vegetables, fruits to
be substituted as snacks rather than candies and chocolates, food with less fat
and sugar or to drink milk rather than drinking cordial drinks. Another way is
to try using positive approach by telling the students that all kind of food
can meet the needs of a balance diet. There is no good food or bad food. The
key to healthy eating is in choosing and intakes of food moderately. Teach them
on how to eat healthy in a simple way, for example having yogurts or milk can
help in strong bone development or tell them that by eating carrots can help
your eyes see well in the dark.
The current implementation is correct
and what needed is to emphasize on the subject. The school need to have more talks
and seminars not only within the students of the school but also together with
the cooperation of the PTA, to invite parents to join in the talk. This is to
make the parents aware of what healthy eating habits are and what it does on
the physical growth of their child. Another way is to have a student teacher
talk, where the school accommodates one period of time for the teachers to give
out information’s and teaches them in depth on healthy eating rather than just
relying on the subject of HE that is there in the text book. The school can
also call in professional athletes to come in and give talks on benefits of
physical activities and how it can be sculptured to be as a career.
The school can also make time for a
field trip for the students to project school such as to “Sekolah Sukan Bukit
Jalil” to show them the benefits of healthy eating combined with physical
activities. They can make field trips to Institut Sukan Negara, where they can
visit Sports Nutrition Centre. This centre provides nutrition service to
national athletes including nutrition assessment, by visiting the centre; the
children can catch a glimpse of what and how the athletes consume in order to
be at the optimum level of health.
On the physical activity side, the
school focus on the 1 Student 1 Sport policy is a good step towards good health
for the students, but the time is short and after school, most children will be
tired after long day of school since morning. What the school can do is to make
time in the morning for 10 – 30 minutes twice or thrice a week just to have a
simple aerobics or exercise to freshen up the students besides just having PE
lessons that are in the syllabus.
Schools are to have a
canteen committee that consists of school teachers including canteen operators’
need to play their role in upholding the trust of making sure that healthy food
are served to the students with the District Education Department monitoring
that they abide to the regulations provided.
6.0 Conclusion
When combined with being
physically active and maintaining a healthy weight by eating well is an
excellent way to help our body stay strong and healthy. In physical activities,
all ages and abilities have a range of benefits offered as part of living a
healthy lifestyle. The Ministry of Health, from time to time has been putting
in effort on finding all sorts of latest methods and approach to organizing
health promotion including conducting campaigns on living healthy that is more
society friendly together with having active participation in all of activities
conducted in order to sculpt a healthy and active citizens. Therefore as a
medium, educational institute, with the help of teachers and parents will need
to realize this vision. Children has the tendency to follow what the adults do,
so, in order to set up good examples, we have to learn and make use of what is in healthy eating and to do physical activities as a routine in our daily lives.
REFERENCES
Nutrition, Physical Activity & Obesity: School Health Guidelines to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activities. (http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/npao/strategies.htm)
Buku Panduan 1 Murid 1 Sukan, downloaded from (http://www.moe.gov.my) on 16th March 2012 REFERENCES
Nutrition, Physical Activity & Obesity: School Health Guidelines to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activities. (http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/npao/strategies.htm)
Nota Peringatan Keselamatan Makanan downloaded from (http://fsq.moh.gov.my) on 16th March 2012.
Panduan Nilai Kalori Jenis Makanan downloaded from (http://www.moe.gov.my) on 16th March 2012.
Puan Azizah binti Ayub (GPK HEM) Sekolah Kebangsaan Puteri Pandan 1, Kuala Lumpur, interview conducted on 7th March, 2012 at 12.30 p.m.
Puan Som binti Bohdin (GB) Sekolah kebangsaan Puteri Pandan 1, Kuala Lumpur, interview conducted on 7th March, 2012 at 1.20 p.m.
Puan Sa’diah binti Hj. Ismail (GPK KO-KU) Sekolah Kebangsaan Puteri Pandan 1, Kuala Lumpur, interview conducted on 7th March at 1.40 p.m.
