National Plan of Establishment and Maintenance of the Health Management System in Schools and Grading for Awarding Stars

Introduction: Addressing school health and safetyis an important public health issue. The aim of this study was to identify the status of safety and health (HSE) in Iranian schools, and to provide a monitoring and evaluation scoring system. Material and methods: A 81-item checklist was applied to obtain data regarding the performance of HSE in 60 schools in five Iranian provinces to award health stars (15-level stars). In all provinces, inadequacies and limitations were documented in safety measures such as access to emergency exits, and the risk of firing. Results and discussion: Bypassing this pilot phase, now an agreement is signed between the Ministry of Health Medical Education and the Ministry of Education Training, and this plan is implemented as a national program in Iran for improvement of the safety in schools. We suggest that establishment and maintenance of the health management system in schools and ranking and granting stars to themis one of the most appropriate plans in this regard to be implemented in the region. Conclusion: An innovational plan is going to be executed for the firsttime in Iran and may be set forth as a successful pattern of institutionalizationof health systematic and dynamic system in collective environments such as schools in the region.