Abstract
For the future development of nutrition education in primary schools, cooperation and collaboration is necessary between teachers of home economics and other subjects and nutrition staff (teachers), based on their respective occupational categories and duties. We studied the current nutrition education given by nutrition staff and examined the issues in the development of cooperation between home economics teachers and nutrition staff (teachers). We conducted a questionnaire survey of school nutrition staff in Nara Prefecture and found that 85% of the staff provided nutrition education. The rate was higher among those who had been working for a long time or among those at relatively large schools. 30% of the nutrition education opportunities at primary schools were given by nutrition staff as special activities, and another 30% as home economics classes. Home economics came first among the subject classes. The system should be reconsidered from the perspective of the burden on nutrition staff (teachers) and the improvement of nutrition education for lower and middle grade students. Making better classes through cooperation between class teachers and nutrition staff requires their mutual understanding, and hence there is a problem that equality of learning opportunities and educational quality for students might be dependent on the human relationships of the teachers and staff at schools.
