MALNUTRITION OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN: AN EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM

The author is Master Teacher Mabalacat City

JOEL M. GARCIA

Malnutrition of children is one of the typical school problems with adverse impacts against the education of learners. Malnutrition is also known as under nutrition of a person. The increasing number of malnourished children gets more widespread globally. Malnutrition is attributed to be the main cause of children’s physical problems like stunted growth, deficits in cognitive development, being underweight and having severely wasted status. Malnourished school-age children are most likely to perform poorly in class because they are deprived of the sufficient nutrition, energy and vigor required to endure a whole day schooling task.

The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that malnutrition is responsible for the 54% of child’s mortality around the globe. Malnutrition particularly among schoolage children can be attributed to various causes. These include inadequate food intake, parasitic infections, lack of sanitation and proper hygiene and untidy environment. Other profound causes are psychosocial deprivation and social inequality.

School-age children are the most vulnerable to malnutrition problems. Malnutrition is linked to various causes. These include poor sanitation, social inequality, and occurrence of diseases, maternal factors and gender. In terms of sanitation concerns, malnourished children are those who are more vulnerable to the use of unsafe water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene. Likewise, social inequality is a huge factor or cause. Throughout the globe, there is a great disparity in terms of nutritional intake between children belonging to rich families and poor children. There is unequal food distribution for households in different countries.

Diseases also serve as one of the worst causes of malnutrition of school-age children. This is because diseases may cause decrease in the nutrient absorption among children. Diseases also cause decreased appetite and food intake and direct nutrient loss among children. Maternal factors are also traced to cause children’s malnutrition. Nutritional intake of children depends on the nutritional levels of their mothers especially during pregnancy and breastfeeding. These are just some of the factors or causes behind children’s malnutrition, malnutrition which is a gross hindrance to children’s cognitive and academic development. — oOo—

I at Camachiles National High School, Dvision of