Cancer education and the primary school teacher in England and Wales

Many adult behaviors and attitudes develop in early childhood. There is a growing acceptance of the need for health education of children of primary school age. Cancer is an important topic within health education, and this study was designed to assess the level of cancer education in schools. Data were collected from a randomly selected sample of over 1,000 teachers of children in primary school years 3-6 (ages 7-11 years). Cancer had been taught about by 18% of the sample, and their pupils' ages had no significant effect on whether they had taught about cancer. Cancer was most often taught about in response to a real-life situation, and the majority of the teachers did not use cancer education resources to help them. The study sought to ascertain why so many teachers had taught about cancer. It appears that concerns over their own lack of personal knowledge, and a perceived lack of resources, were the most common reasons. The young age of the pupils was also a deterrent to cancer education, especially among the teachers of the younger pupils. The results indicate various interventions that may increase the level of primary-school-based cancer education. These include improving teachers' awareness of cancer education issues and providing appropriate cancer education resources.