Children spend ample time in schools where they are exposed to the various components of the schools` environment which may affect their health status either positively or negatively depending on the nature of such environment [1-3]. The introduction of extra-lesson periods in Nigerian primary schools has led to the school children spending extra time in schools [2]. A School environment connotes the physical, biological and the social/emotional milieus within which a child and other members of the school community operate and it involves all the consciously organized, planned, and executed efforts to ensure the safety and healthy living conditions for all members of the school community [1,3].

There are two groups of primary schools in Nigeria. These are the public schools which are owned by the government and the private schools which are owned by individuals or non-governmental organizations. Since the Federal Government launched the School Health Programme [SHP] guidelines in Nigeria [1,3], little efforts have been made to assess the level of compliance with its implementation. Healthful school environment is a key component of the SHP [1,3]. Although some studies exist on SHP in Nigeria [2,4-7], only a few focused mainly on the school environment[2,5,7] and none was from the current study location. This study attempts a more holistic approach to assessing the primary school environment in a focal Local Government Area (LGA) in Southwest Nigeria by examining the three recognized domains of a school environment, namely: The physical, biological, and social/emotional milieus [1,3] The study is aimed to assess the status of the school environment and compare it between the public and private schools in study locality. It also draws attention to the link between the health of the school community members and their environment as a key ingredient to the attainment of the health and education related Millennium Development Goals [8,9].

Citation: Olatunya OS, Oseni SB, Ogundele O, Oyelami OA (2014) A Study of the Primary School Environment in a Local Government Area, South West Nigeria. J Community Med Health Educ 4:321. doi: 10.4172/2161-0711.1000321

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