MoA, FAO and BBGP West Java integrate zoonoses in schools curriculum to prevent rabies
The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Balai Besar Guru Penggerak (BBGP) West Java launched an empowerment programme to raise the awareness of teachers and educational staff of Sekolah Penggerak (school movers) on zoonoses at the elementary and secondary education levels in the West Java Province on World Rabies Day (WRD) commemoration event in Bandung, Saturday (7/10). In the spirit of 2023 WRD global campaign theme, ‘All for 1, One Health for All’, this multisectoral collaboration took a new innovative approach by integrating zoonoses education for the elementary and junior high school students through the Merdeka Belajar curriculum.
Rabies is one of six cross-sector priority zoonotic diseases in Indonesia. Rabies was the first zoonotic disease to be campaigned as a model for starting this programme, considering that West Java, particularly West Bandung and Sukabumi districts, are still battling the spread of this lethal disease. Education from an early age is therefore critical to increasing community participation in the rabies response. This programme therefore served as a part of larger rabies prevention efforts to engage the community in education sector aimed at reducing rabies risks, especially among the children.
On this occasion, Director of Veterinary Public Health of the Ministry of Agriculture and Head of Balai Besar Guru Penggerak West Javasigned a cooperation agreement to inaugurate the programme. “Rabies requires an integrated cross-sector control program based on the principles of One Health. Awareness among the high-risk communities, in this case children, is extremely critical, especially considering that 40% of Rabies victims are children under 15 years of age,” said Syamsul Ma'Arif, Director of Veterinary Public Health, the Ministry of Agriculture.
Mohammad Hartono, Head of Balai Besar Guru Penggerak West Java, welcomed this programme, and stated that this curriculum should be implemented in all schools, not only in Sekolah Penggerak. “This programme is a form of strategic and innovative multisectoral cooperation in Sekolah Penggerak in West Java Province to control zoonoses and strengthen health resilience through education,” said Hartono.
“Incorporating zoonoses into the ‘Merdeka Belajar’ curriculum in elementary and secondary schools is a strategic multisectoral collaboration that creates a generation that becomes aware of the public health threats and takes part in preventing and controlling rabies or other zoonoses that may emerge in Indonesia in the future,” said Rajendra Aryal, FAO Representative in Indonesia and Timor Leste. FAO believes that this programme can have a significant impact in helping to achieve a global strategic plan to eliminate human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030, creating a rabies-free Indonesia.
As part of the rabies risk communication and community engagement, FAO Indonesia earlier facilitated an online webinar on rabies prevention in collaboration with MoA, exclusively targeting teachers and educational staffs of Sekolah Penggerak in West Java Province to improve their knowledge on rabies threats and proper response to the disease. Following that, information, education, and communication materials were distributed across Sekolah Penggerak in West Java Province as teaching aids to improve students' rabies knowledge.