Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the effects of nutritional status on educational performance of the primary school children in the plantation sector in Nuwara Eliya educational zone. A cross-sectional study involving 802 Grade-4 children was conducted on a randomly selected 21 plantation schools in Nuwara Eliya zone. By measuring height and weight using standard methods, indicators such as height-for-age, weight-for-age and body mass index-for-age were computed and used to define stunting, underweight and thinness to indicate nutritional status. The educational performance of children was assessed by using end-term examination marks obtained for Tamil and Mathematics subjects and for the overall subject average. The prevalence of stunting, underweight and thinness in the study group was 32%,50% and 34%, respectively. All indicators were significantly higher (p Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 24 (3): 203-214 (2013)
Highlights
Children are considered the greatest national resource of any country who will build the future of the Nation
The present study investigates this relationship using primary school children in Nuwara-Eliya educational zone
Mian et al (2002) reported that, no association exists between nutritional status and gender among school children in Pakistan
Summary
Several studies on the relationship between undernutrition, wasting, stunting and academic achievement have been published (Pollitt, 1990; Themane et al, 2003; Mukudi, 2003; Ivanovic et al, 2004 and Cueto, 2005) and all of them have reported significant associations between nutritional status indicators and cognitive test scores or school performance indicators. Several studies in developing countries found that height-for-age, which is an indicator of stunting, is related to educational achievement (Shariff et al, 2000; Glewwe et al, 2001; Alderman et al, 2001 and Aturupane et al, 2006). Height-for-age reflects the accumulation of nutritional deprivation throughout the years, which may affect the cognitive development of the children (Shariff et al, 2000)
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