The Effects of Nutritional Status on Educational Performance of Primary School Children in the Plantation Sector in Nuwara Eliya Educational Zone

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-forage , weight-forage and body mass index-forage 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<0.05) in males than in females. The educational performance of females was higher than males, the differences being statistically significant except in Mathematics (p=0.075). The low level of educational performance (marks<40%) in Tamil, Mathematics and overall subject average was significantly higher (p<0.05) among the underweight and stunted children than that of the normal children. The height-forage and weight-forage Z-scores showed significant positive associations (p<0.05) with Tamil, Mathematics and overall subject average marks while BMI-forage Z-score showed significant positive associations (p<0.05) with only Mathematics and overall subject average. It appears that undernutrition in the primary school children of the plantation sector has led to a low level of educational performance, which could affect their quality of life in the long-term.