Sustainable human resource training system for promoting school health in Japan

It is essential to develop relevant human resources and sustainable training systems to promote school health.

This paper reviewed the structure of human resources and relevant training systems for school health in Japan and identified current strengths and challenges.

Our review identified seven key points: (i) a legal basis for the allocation of human resources to schools; (ii) established training systems for school health human resources; (iii) uniformity and quality of teacher training curricula; (iv) establishment of teacher-training institutions; (v) education centers in every prefecture; (vi) allocation of supervisors for Yogo teachers to every prefectural and municipal education board; and (vii) various study group activities at the district and school levels.

Based on these results, we proposed some useful ideas for developing human resources to promote school health in countries outside Japan, especially for developing countries. First, it is necessary to clarify the required competencies for school health among school staff and establish teacher-training systems based on the required competencies in each country. It is also necessary to consider possible collaboration with existing community health workers, such as doctors, nurses, midwives, nutritionists, and community health workers by providing short-term training on school health. Second, it is important to train and assign specialists to teacher-training institutions that can provide education and conduct research on school health. Third, it is helpful to enhance the functions of in-service training at the prefectural or district level and introduce lesson study on school health.