{"id":5883,"date":"2025-06-24T09:03:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/?p=5883"},"modified":"2025-09-19T10:09:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T04:39:03","slug":"the-need-to-introduce-the-one-health-concept-in-school-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/?p=5883","title":{"rendered":"The need to introduce the \u2018One Health\u2019 concept in school education"},"content":{"rendered":"

One Health<\/strong> is a collaborative, multisectoral approach to achieving better health outcomes by recognizing the interconnectedness of the health of humans, animals, and the environment. This approach is now endorsed worldwide, which has the potential to address complex global challenges such as zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change impacts. Introducing the One Health concept in school education is crucial for fostering an understanding of this holistic approach among children in their formative years. The rise in pandemics and environmental crises emphasizes the urgency of preparing future generations to face these challenges more efficiently.<\/span><\/p>\n

The One Health concept emphasizes that human health is intimately connected to animal and environmental health. Educating students early during their school days can build awareness among them of how ecosystems, wildlife, and human activities interact. From our experience of the last century, it is now known that over 70% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are of zoonotic origin. Teaching students about disease transmission across species can bestow them with an understanding of possible ways of such transmission and prepare them to think and suggest strategies for preventive measures in future through research. It can also foster critical thinking about global issues like pandemics, food safety, and antibiotic resistance. Students will also be able to learn how climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss affect health, encouraging them to adopt sustainable practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

As one Health integrates different subjects like biology, environmental science, social sciences, public health and ethics, etc., the introduction of this concept in the curriculum at the school level is expected to promote the realization of the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in research and services in future. It will certainly foster collaboration and partnership in their approach to evolving solutions to societal issues. Introducing these concepts early may also inspire careers in veterinary medicine, environmental science, epidemiology, or public health.<\/span><\/p>\n

The basic concepts like the importance of hygiene, animal care, waste management and recycling may be introduced even at the primary level of education, while at the secondary level, zoonotic diseases, climate change, food safety and security may be included in the curriculum within the subjects like science, social studies and geography. However, at the same time, there should be strategic initiatives to equip the teachers with resources to teach One Health principles through workshops or training programs. There is also a need to involve students in community projects, like awareness campaigns, clean-up drives or animal welfare activities, to expose them to the practical applications of the One Health concept. There should be ample scope for involving health workers, medical and veterinary professionals, etc., in these activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The limited space in the existing curriculum may pose a challenge to the introduction of One Health in school education. However, with a serious effort towards developing suitable content on relevant topics, engaging experts can help integrate One Health into existing subjects such as science or social studies, rather than creating standalone courses. The use of appropriate methods suited to specific age groups can effectively address the initial hurdles of attracting students to the curricular content concerning One Health, once it is introduced.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral approach to achieving better health outcomes by recognizing the interconnectedness of the health of humans, animals, and the environment. This approach is now endorsed worldwide, which has the potential to address complex global challenges such as zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change impacts. Introducing the One Health concept…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,459],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-editorial33th-issue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5885,"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5883\/revisions\/5885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babrone.avfu.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}