Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, together with Parliamentary Secretary for Health Chris Fearne, have today launched the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Policy Document with the aim to give high priority to healthy eating and physical activity through holistic education.

Minister Bartolo said that the Ministry is committed to implement the ‘Education for Life’ concept promoted by UNESCO through its four Pillars of Learning namely: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be.

“An integral component of the ‘learning to be,’ is learning how to make healthy choices to live a healthy life, and our schools provide an especially critical environment for encouraging healthy behaviours,” the Minister said.

Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne added that the dietary and physical activity behaviours of children and adolescents are influenced by many sectors of society, and that is why this whole of Government and whole of society approach is a necessity to be able to tackle this ever growing problem of overweight and obesity.

“A healthy, balanced diet and regular physical activity make an important contribution to children’s growth and development to their educational performance and attainment and to their long-term health and well-being,” he said.

They said that the vision of the Ministry for Education and Employment and the Ministry for Energy and Health foresees a future in which children, their families and the whole community are physically active, eat healthy food and live in environments that support healthy behaviours in order to reduce obesity, chronic disease and enhance well-being.

Additional details on the Healthy Eating & Physical Activity Policy Document are available to download here.

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