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Dengue and Malaria Prevention: How can Schools and their Students Help?

Malaria is here for quite some time now. Although proper treatment and medication are now available, the disease does become life-threatening when it turns malignant in nature. As for dengue, the endemic that the country was facing is still fresh in people’s minds and no matter how much grip the authorities have put on the resulting death tolls, cases of dengue fever still remain significant across India. And both of these diseases, dengue, and malaria, are mosquito-borne, and as evident, with proper precautions and awareness, they are preventable. A few simple steps from everyone in society are all it takes to keep these diseases at bay.

Thus, dengue and malaria prevention and awareness have become a massive campaign from the side of the government. And how can schools and their students be kept out when it comes to educating an entire society? The CBSE board has already issued a directive to its schools to hold awareness sessions to educate their students about these diseases, in the hope that the future generation will be more equipped to battle these menaces. Still, the top school in Sonepat not only looks out for the future but seeks to change the present as well.

So, how can schools and their students help?

Schools are centers of education and education is not only limited to the prescribed curriculum. In such institutions, where students visit with an open mind to learn anything and everything, an opportunity always stands to spread awareness about current social menaces and practices that tend to harm people’s lives. Students will pick up the preventive measures that can be applied to dengue and malaria better than adults, for their mind is free and they possess an enthusiasm to bring about a change.

Let’s simplify this discussion with an example. Say, a student learns in school that dengue and malaria are spread by mosquitoes of specific breeds. She learns that mosquitoes take birth and thrive in accumulated water and the best way to prevent their growth is to empty every household from such utensils where there is a chance that rainwater can get collected. She will take this knowledge to her house, persuaded her parents to apply it in their daily lives, and her parents along with her can spread this simple message in the neighborhood. If one student is successful in bringing about this much of a change, imagine a scale when an entire school is taken into account.

This is what CBSE schools in Sonepat look to achieve. To make every drop count. Not only are the schools to follow the board’s directive, but they are to make sure that the students are taking active steps to spread awareness, participating in making a change, and practicing preventive measures in their daily lives. Through the young minds, the schools can reach out to the society in the present and also secure its future with the help of aware and educated minds.

The awareness programs can deeper only in schools

There is another benefit of including the school students directly in the dengue and malaria prevention and awareness program. School students are better equipped to understand the reasons behind the preventive steps they are to take than the general public out there. How? They are still in the flow of education. They can better understand the difference in species that lead to the spread of those diseases, how they fly around at different times of the day and how fever along with headaches are symptoms of one disease but not the other. School students are in a better place to persuade their parents or anyone in the society to visit a clinic for they know the science that goes on in the backdrop and can put forth logical arguments to anyone.

This is, somewhat, herculean when the same awareness is being run via a microphone. Hardly any passerby will have the time or attention to listen to the full explanation as to why a blood test is necessary and why a patient needs to stay in the mosquito net. But school students have the time and attention, they will absorb better than the adults, and can later take it on themselves to spread the knowledge in their community. The best school in Sonepat looks to turn each and every student of theirs into an example, a leader who can bring about a change.

The time has come to fight

And schools and their students can really be the best soldiers to battle against the menaces of dengue and malaria. Swarnprastha Public School, the top school in Sonipat is one such institute where the awareness program has already started within the school as the management is always about changing the community towards everything good. SPS students are set to have regular sessions on dengue and malaria prevention, will learn more about measures to stay healthy and what all to do in case of infection. And then, it is on these young minds to transform the mentality of the entire society.