Single-Building Schools and Obesity in Children

A 10-year-old boy had, for about five years, struggled with mild obesity especially marked by mini beer belly. The parents had tried things like making him eat no later than 6 pm and cutting sugar from his diet as much as possible. Yet, nothing changed. Then, suddenly, the mini beer belly disappeared. The child became fit and trim overnight. The parents now had the opposite worry i.e. finding out if the child’s miraculous weight loss was not due to an underlying ailment. His diet had not changed. After a round of questioning by the doctor, they discovered how the miracle was brought about: the child had moved from a single-building school where there was zero opportunity for roaming around and for sports, to a school on large grounds where he had to walk from point to point for various activities and where he could play football daily.

The facilities present and programmes offered in a school have a significant effect on your child. Children spend a minimum of forty hours a week in school – how they use this time has a significant impact on the habits and lifestyle they develop and hence, on their health. Schools that have large grounds and multiple buildings compel students to do a lot of walking during the forty hours they spend there. They end up burning a lot of calories. Kids gain a lot health-wise just by having to walk around. They gain much more when they engage in various sporting activities such as football, basketball, volleyball, handball etc. that having large grounds allow a school to arrange.

Governments and education authorities all over the world are aware of the positive links between exercise and health and for this reason include large grounds and sporting activities in the requirements to approve schools. Until the early 2000s during which there was proliferation of private schools, virtually all schools, private and public, had large grounds which allowed a variety of sporting activities. Now, this is the exception: even very expensive private schools in posh neighborhoods on Lagos Island are housed in duplexes with no more grounds than the regular driveway.

 Mrs. Adeola Billesanmi of Vicsum Private School noted that “there is a regulatory body that inspects schools during registration. One of the things they insist a school should have is a playground for the nursery section and a field for secondary school, but some schools have a way of avoiding this…” She also stated during the interview that “schools are obliged to engage their students in sporting activities at least once a week”.

These regular activities that the students engage in daily coupled with a healthy diet and lifestyle would see a drastic change in an overweight child. Childhood obesity is gradually becoming a global epidemic. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), “there are an estimated 43 million overweight children under the age of 5 and in 2020 more than 60% of the global disease burden, will be the result of obesity-related disorders”. Obese children are also at a higher risk of having other chronic health conditions and diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, hyperlipidemia (too much fat in the blood), asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, gastro-intestinal disease and psychological problems (e.g. low self-esteem).

Schools and the media do not sufficiently address the problem of obesity in Nigeria. Parents should not only be concerned about academic records when searching for schools for their children – they should choose schools that also have adequate grounds and sporting activities. But this isn’t the whole solution to having fit and healthy kids. Dr. Okorie Ijeoma Mercy of the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (FETHA) says, “Exercising and the wrong feeding pattern would achieve nothing. Sporting activities like football, swimming, dancing, etc. coupled with healthy feeding habits can go a long way in preventing and reducing obesity in a child”. Parents should strive to seriously reduce the consumption of fatty, sweetened and salty snacks – poor diets and lack of exercise rather than genetic disposition are the main causes of obesity in children.

Parents should influence their children’s diet and introduce healthy food options like vegetables, fruits, whole-grain products, low-fat dairy products etc. These should be part of children’s breakfast and should also replace the unhealthy snacks most children buy in school. They should also talk to children about the importance of healthy eating. Children who learn the importance of balanced diet, adequate water intake, the impact of high-sugar and high-carbohydrate foods on the body and health, the good in eating fruits and whole grains, fiber and fruits etc. are more likely to grow up used to healthy diets. This responsibility should not be placed on kids alone. After all, obesity is not constrained by age limits. Due to urbanisation and lifestyle changes, the rate of obesity in the African urban population is expected to rise to 50%. Parents should also strive to be good role models by eating well and exercising regularly. The whole family should reduce TV-viewing time, replacing it with healthy habits such as taking a walk together for even 20 or 30 minutes four times in a week.