Title: School Health as a Mediator of Educational Quality in Public Primary Schools: A Desk Review of Research and Policy Evidence from Ethiopia's National School Health and Nutrition Strategy
Authors: Belete, Sintayehu Berhanu , Huang Fang
Volume: 10
Issue: 6
Pages: 34-48
Publication Date: 2026/06/28
Abstract:
School health remains analytically underspecified as a mediating mechanism in Ethiopian education policy, despite its centrality to learning outcomes. This desk review examines how school health mediates the relationship between Ethiopia's National School Health and Nutrition Strategy (NSHNS) implementation and educational quality in public primary schools, drawing peer-reviewed articles, government documents, and organizational reports spanning global, African, and Ethiopian contexts (2015-2025). Guided by the Process Approach to Policy Analysis and four complementary theoretical frameworks, the study develops an original conceptual mediation model identifying four pathways - nutritional status, physical health, psychosocial well-being, and school attendance - through which NSHNS policy implementation produces educational quality outcomes. Findings confirm that while the NSHNS is architecturally robust, rural-urban infrastructure disparities, fragmented intersectoral governance, and inadequate intermediate outcome monitoring systematically constrain mediation pathway activation. The study advances a process-oriented policy evaluation framework transferable to analogous school health strategies across sub-Saharan Africa.