In the letter, a broad social coalition, including the aforementioned educational institutions, makes three proposals to strengthen the health and resilience of all 18 million inhabitants of the Netherlands. One of these is to accelerate the Healthy Generation initiative. Part of the proposal is that all schools should be given the opportunity to become healthy schools, with sufficient physical activity, healthy school meals and attention to sport, culture and a healthy learning environment, including the development of social-emotional skills.
The authors state that national programmes such as Healthy Childcare and Healthy School provide a sound basis for working on health promotion in childcare and education in a qualitative, sustainable and integrated manner. To prevent fragmentation, the authors propose scaling up these existing programmes. Preconditions include creating future-proof, healthy and inclusive school buildings and preventing additional burdens on teachers. According to the authors, scaling up will help ensure that a generation grows up healthy and resilient.
Read the letter to the informateur here.