The School Health Training and Ecohealth Promotion Foundation (STEP) is a foundation established to promote school health in developing countries. This is because human resources are essential to national development, and they must be physically and mentally healthy.

In Cambodia, STEP will implement Phase 2 of the School Health Development Project for all Cambodian Children (SHCC) as its main project. Phase 1 of SHCC was implemented by Tokyo Gakugei University with funding from The Nippon Foundation over a seven-year period, beginning with preparatory activities in 2019.

During Phase 1 (March 2020 to December 2025), efforts focused on establishing the foundations of school health education to promote school health in Cambodian primary schools, centering on teacher training universities in Phnom Penh and Battambang. To train teachers who can teach school health at the primary school level, school health education was introduced into the primary teacher training programs at these universities.

In Phase 2 (from January 2026 onward), the School Health and Eco-Health Promotion Foundation will take over the project and aim to establish a school health sub-course within lower secondary education programs in order to train teachers who specialize in health education. In collaboration with Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and The Nippon Foundation, and after completing the foundational development in Cambodia, the project also aims to expand to the ASEAN region, using Cambodia as a model.

Development of School Health Textbook

The primary school teacher training course at the teacher training college offers school health (2 credits) as a compulsory subject. In this project, a School Health Textbook for use in the classes was prepared and officially approved by the Ministry of Education, youth and sports of Cambodia.

Training School Health Lecturers

The project provides comprehensive school health training for lecturers in charge of school health classes at teacher education colleges, including the contents of school health textbooks, health education teaching methods and health room management.

Development of a School Health Textbook for the Secondary School Teacher Training Program

As part of this project, we have also developed a textbook for students enrolled in the secondary school teacher training program (general subjects) to study school health. This textbook is based on the one designed for the primary school teacher training program, covering the essential content in a comprehensive manner. It has been officially approved by the Cambodian Ministry of Education.

Establish the School Health course in Teacher Education College

Teacher Education Colleges(TEC) plan to establish a course for training student teachers who will be in charge of school health in lower secondary school. The project prepare syllabuses and textbooks for the school health course and provide support for classes in TEC.