PERCEIVED IMPACT OF SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAM IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SAMARU COMMUNITY ZARIA

School Health Program (SHP) is a coordinated activity which contributes to the understanding, maintenance and improvement of the health of school population. Structures for effective school health program has collapsed, teachers and schools are not motivated to implement school health program. This study evaluates the perceived impact of school health program in various secondary schools in the Samaru community, through physical, mental and social wellbeing assessment of the students. Health promotion model was used as the theoretical framework. The Study design was a cross sectional descriptive survey design and simple random sampling method was used to select the samples consisting of 70 students from Government girls Samaru, 52 students from Demonstration secondary school, 21 students from God`s time comprehensive and 17 students from Model learning. Making a total of 160 respondents, data was collected by using self-administered questionnaires. Results reveals that the student`s physical health and wellbeing is lower than expected because the aggregate mean (3.40) is less than the constant or assumed mean (3.50).There is a slight tendency of mental and social deviation from normal wellbeing. These imply that nurses should be involved in active health education to student through collaboration with schools. Recommendations were made to secondary schools and the Government for policy making and interventions.