ABSTRACT
When open and distance learning (ODL) is used as a vehicle for basic education in health it can build on the synergism between education, health and the environment to yield increased benefits. Education, especially of women and girls, has been shown to increase child survival and improve family health and productivity (Cochrane, Leslie and O’Hara 1982, Blaug 1985, Psacharopoulos 1985). This happens by enhancing women’s ability to manage children’s health problems, by improving family nutrition and by ensuring more effective diagnosis and timely treatment (Caldwell 1994, 1996). Improving health can also improve educational achievement by increasing school attendance and reducing the micronutrient deficiencies, such as lack of iron or iodine, which decrease children’s ability to learn (Pollitt 1990, Nokes, van den Bosch and Bundy 1998, World Bank 1993, Heward 1999). Better family health can also mean that girls are not taken out of school so often to care for sick relatives (Watkins 1999).
