China CDC issues teachers’ guides for nutrition education

Two teachers’ guides compiled by experts from the National Institute for Nutrition and Health (NINH) of the China CDC were recently released.

These two guides, one for primary school students' nutrition education and the other for secondary school students' nutrition education, are based on the nutrition and health content of health education in primary and secondary schools stipulated by the Ministry of Education, and are directed at prominent health problems of primary and secondary school students in the country.

Experts from NINH of the China CDC summarized the experience of projects and initiatives such as Nutrition School and Nutrition Improvement Programme for Rural Compulsory Education Students, and followed suggestions from Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention of National Health Commission,  Office of the Women's and Children's Working Committee of the State Council and the Expert Group of the Ministry of Education when compiling the materials.

The books cover topics in the following these aspects: food, nutrients, dietary behaviors, nutrition-related diseases, healthy lifestyles, Chinese traditional dietary culture and food safety.

A total of 52 class hours will be needed for the books, where, 40 class hours are for compulsory lectures on core contents and 12 for supplementary lectures. The book for primary school students requires 36 class hours in total, while that for secondary school students requires 16 class hours. Students in Grade one to six will have six class hours of lectures (including compulsory and supplementary lectures) on the book each year, those in Grade seven and eight (the first two grades in junior high school) will have five class hours, and those in Grade nine to eleven (the third grade in junior and first two grades in senior high school) will have two class hours of lectures each year.

Each class consists of four parts: teaching objectives and key points, teaching content, practice and exploration, and extensive reading.

The books aim to guide teachers to carry out nutrition education and organize after-school activities, so that primary and secondary school students can acquire scientific and systematic nutrition and health knowledge, master necessary life skills, and develop healthy lifestyles.