WAEC Syllabus for Health Education
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the syllabus for all subjects to be taken in the examination. If you are preparing to write Health Education, you should use the WAEC Health Education Syllabus as a guide when revising for the examination. It will help you know the topics you are expected to study and make your preparation more focused.
Below in this article, you will find the WAEC syllabus for Health Education to help you prepare properly for the examination.
WAEC Syllabus for Health Education
| Section | Main Topics and Subtopics |
|---|---|
| A. History and Development of Health Education | Meaning of Health Education; settings of Health Education, including home-based, school-based, community-based, health facility-based and workplace-based; meaning of health promotion. |
| B. Human Anatomy and Physiology | Cells and Tissues: types of cells, somatic and sex cells; cell division, mitosis and meiosis; cell differentiation, formation of tissues, organs and systems; growth and development. |
| Sense Organs: structure and functions of the eye, ear, skin, nose and tongue. | |
| Skeletal System and Muscles: general plan of the axial and appendicular skeleton; functions of the skeletal system; joints, their structures and types; muscle tissues, their structures and types; movement. | |
| Circulatory System: structure and functions of the heart, blood and lymph vessels; composition of blood and lymph; blood and lymph circulation; blood clotting; blood groups, rhesus factors, haemoglobin and genotype; diseases and disorders of the circulatory system, including sickle cell anaemia, leukaemia, haemophilia, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, coronary thrombosis and stroke. | |
| Digestive System: organs of the digestive system and their functions; digestion; absorption, assimilation and metabolism; diseases and disorders of the digestive system and their prevention. | |
| Excretory System: structure and functions of the kidney and skin; urine formation. | |
| Respiratory System: structure and functions of the respiratory system; respiration; mechanism of breathing; gaseous exchange; tissue/cellular respiration; diseases and disorders of the respiratory system and their control. | |
| Nervous System: structure and functions of the components of the nervous system; voluntary and involuntary actions; diseases and disorders of the nervous system. | |
| Endocrine System: locations of the different endocrine glands; hormones produced by the glands and their functions. | |
| Homeostasis: physiological factors affecting homeostasis. | |
| Posture and Postural Defects: definition; characteristics of correct posture; determination of correct postures; flat foot, scoliosis, kyphosis and lordosis; effects of incorrect posture on physical appearance, position and functions of body organs. | |
| C. Personal Health | Meaning and importance of physical health; personal hygiene; promotion and maintenance of health; factors involved in maintaining health. |
| Health Screening: eye defects and their correction, including myopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism, presbyopia and squints; auditory defects; conductive impairment; neurosensory impairment; disorders of the skin; care of the eye, ear and skin. | |
| Dental Health Education: meaning and types; types of human teeth; teeth diseases, including dental caries and gingivitis. | |
| D. Community Health | Community Health Services: definition; orthodox health services, such as primary health care; traditional services, such as bone setters and birth attendants; community efforts in health promotion. |
| School Health Programme: definition; skill-based health education; healthful school environment; school feeding services; school health and nutrition services; school, home and community relationship; goals and objectives; Health Promoting School (HPS); Child-Friendly School (CFS); Focusing Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH); Life Skills (LS); Education for All (EFA). | |
| Family Health: meaning; maternal and child health; family size and budgeting. | |
| Ageing and Death Education: definition and features of the elderly; ways of relating with the elderly; meaning of grief and death; common causes of death. | |
| Epidemiology and Vital Statistics: definitions; birth rate; mortality rate; morbidity rate; uses of the major components of vital statistics. | |
| E. Environmental Health | Housing: criteria for good housing, including siting, ventilation, lighting and sanitation; components of a standard house. |
| Water Supply: definition and sources; purification and uses. | |
| Waste Disposal: meaning; refuse; sewage; methods of waste disposal. | |
| Pollution: meaning; air, water, soil and noise pollution; meaning and sources of pollutants; health consequences of pollution. | |
| Industrial Occupation: meaning; industrial health service programmes; occupational hazards. | |
| Pests and Vectors Control: meaning; habitats of pests and vectors; harmful effects and control. | |
| F. Nutrition and Food Nutrients | Nutrition: classes, sources and functions of food nutrients; caloric value of food nutrients. |
| Balanced/Adequate Diets: definition; classification; nutritional problems. | |
| Factors influencing feeding habits and choice of foods. | |
| Water. | |
| Nutritional processes, including ingestion, digestion, absorption, assimilation, metabolism and defecation/ejection. | |
| Beverages: definition; types and effects. | |
| Diet for Different Groups: children, male adolescents, female adolescents, athletes, pregnant women, adults and the aged. | |
| Food Hygiene, Preservation and Storage: meaning and principles of food hygiene; effects of food preparation methods on nutrients; smoking, drying/dehydration, freezing/refrigeration, addition of chemicals/sugar/salts, bottling, pickling and canning. | |
| G. Safety Education and First Aid | First Aid: meaning, aims and principles; first aid kit; cuts, wounds, bleeding, dislocation, fractures, burns, scalds, shock, asphyxia/suffocation and poisoning; agencies providing first aid services. |
| Disaster: meaning and types; disaster relief activities. | |
| Accidents: types, causes and prevention. | |
| Disability and Rehabilitation: meaning, types and prevention. | |
| H. Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Education | Drug Education: terminologies in drug education; classes of commonly abused drugs; ways of taking drugs into the body; drug abuse and consequences of self-medication. |
| Behaviour-Altering Chemicals: tobacco, its components and effects of smoking on health; alcohol and its effects on health; drugs and their effects on health. | |
| I. Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases | Diseases: meaning and classes of diseases. |
| Communicable Diseases: definition and classification; airborne/respiratory diseases, including common cold, measles, whooping cough, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, cerebro-spinal meningitis and diphtheria. | |
| Water/food-borne diseases, including dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever, schistosomiasis and guinea worm. | |
| Insect-borne diseases, including malaria, yellow fever, trypanosomiasis and filariasis. | |
| Worm infections, including roundworm, tapeworm, hookworm and guinea worm. | |
| Animal-borne diseases, including rabies and leptospirosis. | |
| Contact diseases, including gonorrhoea, syphilis, athlete's foot, ringworm, leprosy, scabies and AIDS. | |
| Factors necessary for communicable diseases to occur: causative agent, susceptible host and transmission route/environment. | |
| Non-Communicable Diseases: deficiency diseases such as scurvy, pellagra, rickets, kwashiorkor, anaemia and beriberi; diseases resulting from cell growth, heredity and normal disorders, including cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, haemophilia, heart disease, hypertension, ulcer, mental illness, sickle cell, rheumatism, infertility, asthma and albinism. | |
| J. Family Life and Human Sexuality Education | Human Reproduction: reproduction, sex, gametes, ovulation, menstruation, fertilization, pregnancy and gestation; male and female reproductive organs and their functions; conception, pregnancy, foetal development and childbirth; diseases and disorders of the reproductive system. |
| Human Sexuality Education: meaning and importance; life skills, including assertive negotiation and communication skills. | |
| Family and Family Member Roles: meaning and types of family; family size. | |
| Family Life Challenges: widowhood, single parenthood, premarital and extramarital affairs, in-laws and related issues; agencies promoting healthy family living. | |
| Family Planning and Safe Motherhood: meaning and need for family planning; birth control methods; safe motherhood. | |
| Population Education: meaning of population and population education; census and its problems; small and large population. | |
| K. Emotional and Social Health | Interrelationship between emotional and social health. |
| Attributes: definition of personality and personality traits; personality problems and solutions. | |
| Mental Health: definition; promotion; types and prevention; importance. | |
| L. Consumer Health Education | Consumer health products and services; laws protecting consumers. |
| Factors influencing the choice of consumer products, including authenticity, cost, availability, accessibility and advertisement. | |
| Consumer health care services. | |
| Quacks and quackery, meaning and types. | |
| Health insurance and advertisement of health products and services. | |
| Nostrum: definition, types and reasons for avoiding nostrum. |
The syllabus covers a wide range of topics, so candidates should not study only the areas they find easy. Make sure you follow the WAEC Health Education syllabus carefully and cover the topics listed above as you prepare for the examination. Studying according to the syllabus can help you stay focused and avoid leaving important areas untouched.
If you find this syllabus helpful, share this post with other WAEC candidates preparing for Health Education. It may also help them organise their studies properly.
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