Gauteng's school health programme received a boost with a donation of a mobile clinic to be used by health workers to screen children for conditions that undermine their learning.

Last year, through this programme, the Department screened well over 50 000 learners from different schools for a range of health conditions.

The Department's 61 School Health Teams which are made up of a professional nurse and an enrolled nurse and/or an assistant nurse screened 57 095 learners last year. 6 347 of these learners were referred to local clinics and hospitals for specialist care and further investigations.

Prevalent cases that were identified were oral health, eye care, hearing difficulties, speech and suspected TB.

During the visits, immunisation is also one of the key services that are provided to children. Over and above the immunisation, the children are also assisted with psychosocial support. To ensure that positive change is effected, there are also follow-up visits.

The generous donation by Nedbank will assist the Department in reaching more children this year thus ensuring that challenges that may impact negatively on effective learning are picked up early and dealt with properly.

"This is one of the department's initiatives to strengthen primary healthcare and to ensure that preventable health factors that undermine the children's learning process are eliminated. We are indeed determined and committed to playing our part in ensuring that children stay healthy and do not drop out of school," said Gauteng Health MEC, Hope Papo.

"We urged parents to support their kids by encouraging them to study after school as that is another important factor in order for them to obtain good results. It is also important to cook healthy meals for them and encourage them to participate in sporting activities so they can be strong and healthy", concluded the MEC.