Development and Implementation of Nutrition Education on Dietary Diversification for Primary School Children

A quasi-experimental one group pretest/posttest design study was undertaken in two primary schools from two rural villages of Vhembe District in Limpopo Province, South Africa. About 172 children aged 9-14 years in Grades 5 and 6 were recruited for the study. All children in the grades were invited to participate pending written consent from parents and verbal assent from children. Due to school migration and absenteeism, only 154 children were available for posttest evaluation. However, nutrition education was administered to all 172 children. Nutrition education focused on types and health benefits of indigenous foods and was divided into three lessons. Observation and counting was used to note the responses given by children. The results suggest that the nutrition education was effective in imparting knowledge to children as well improving dietary diversification with indigenous foods. It is concluded that nutrition education is a valuable tool to change eating behaviors.