Ministries cooperate to overcome obesity among students

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry (KKM) and the Education Ministry (KPM) are working together to produce a training module to control the problem of obesity among student.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam said the training modules would also serve as guidelines for Physical Education teachers in monitoring their students’ diet and eating habits.

“Now, almost every school has a teacher that monitors the students’ fitness level through various training and continuous and education to tackle the obesity problem.

“The ministry is always concerned with the students’ food consumption in school and has implemented various initiatives, including providing information on the food that can be sold or prohibited to be sold by canteen operators to prevent them from selling unhealthy food,” he told reporters after officiating the 2017 Health Ministry Management Conference, here yesterday.

He said besides that, ‘Hidangan Berkhasiat di Sekolah’ (HiTS) and ‘Cara Hidup Anda Terbaik’ (C-HAT) programmes had been introduced in schools and to parents to expose them to obesity problem among students.

He said the KKM and KPM had introduced the Young Doctor Programme among pupils to educate them on the importance of a balanced diet.

Based on monitoring by KKM through the School Health Team in the first quarter of this year, a total of 7,278 Standard Six pupils are obese, he said.