Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to describe the nutritional status of the children in grade I
of the schoolsin the university community health project area and to compare the
behaviour,educational achievement and intelligence in a group of children identified as
having chronic malnutrition with a normal group matched for sex, age and class.This study
shows that the development quotient and behaviour had the highest influnce on the
variability observed in the educational performance and these effects were independant of
the influence of the socio-economic factors.These results have important national
implications since a large proportion of child at school entry are stunted.The prevalence of
PEM among grade I school children in the university health project area of Kotte was found
to be high,being 24.5 per cent. Usefulness of this measure (the criterion of weight for age)
needs to be reviewed in the light of the finding that 28 per cent of the population who were
identified by the method as undernourished are not wasted according to waterlow
classification.Behavioural problems were found to be associated with stuning and also found
to influence educational outcome itself or in conjunction with stunting.A relationship has
been established between low height for age and low overall educational performance.
