School-based immunization
One of the aims of the Global Immunization Vision and Strategy (GIVS) of WHO and UNICEF is to “protect more children in a changing world”, including the expansion of “vaccination beyond the traditional target group of infants.” School-based immunization is one such strategy with the promise of reaching older children. With increases in school enrolment rates the school immunization strategy has become even more promising.
WHO and partners are collecting experiences from several countries with existing school-based immunization programmes. This information can be useful for other countries that contemplate introducing a similar strategy.
So far, the programmes in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia have been documented. These countries have been implementing a nationwide school immunization programme for decades, and their experiences in school-based immunization including its organization, results, and implementation, may be of guidance to other countries who have not yet established such a programme.
Terms of reference for the country visits
- To collaborate with the MOH and other government institutions in documenting the national school-based immunization programme.
- To collect information on the school-based immunization programme at various levels using structured questions, reported data and observation of processes.
- To synthesize the information collected from Indonesia (and in due course other countries) in order to produce a joint collaborative report on documentation of national school-based immunization programmes.
The team stressed that the purpose of the visit was to document the routine school immunization programme and that this was not an evaluation.
The reports on the school-based immunization programmes in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia can be downloaded here:
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Indonesia school-based programme
pdf, 361kb -
Malaysia school-based programme
pdf, 1.81Mb -
Sri Lanka school-based experiences
pdf, 6.90Mb -
Tunisia school immunization report
pdf, 2.95Mb
For each of these reports, the information was collected by WHO in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other government institutions. In the case of Indonesia and Sri Lanka, IMMUNIZATIONBasics, a USAID funded programme implemented by JSI, was a key-partner to collect the information and write the report. Information on the school-based immunization programme at various levels was collected using structured questions, reported data and observation of processes.
Useful links
School health and youth promotion
WHO's Global School Health Initiative, launched in 1995, seeks to mobilize and strengthen health promotion and education activities at the local, national, regional and global levels. The Initiative is designed to improve the health of students, school personnel, families and other members of the community through schools.