Introduction: First aid is an immediate temporary assistance given to a person who is injured or a suddenly become ill, using facilities or material available at the time before regular medical help is imparted. First aid includes assessing the victim for life threatening conditions, performing appropriate interventions to sustain life and keeping the person possible physical and mental conditions until he/she can enter the emergency or casualty unit in the hospital.

Objectives:

1.       To determine the pre-test level of knowledge of school children regarding first-aid using a structured knowledge questionnaire.

2.       To evaluate the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on first-aid among school children in terms of gain in mean post-test knowledge score.

3.       To find out the association between mean pre-test knowledge score and selected demographic variables

Methodology: The study was carried out in Private School at Mangaluru. The sample comprised of 60 school children in the age group of 10 to 12 years. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample. The data collection was done from 18/10/24 to 25/10/24. Formal written permission was obtained from the School Principal, prior to data collection. Data was collected by administering the structured knowledge questionnaire. PTP was administered and post-test was carried by administering same knowledge questionnaire. The data was analyzed using planned teaching programme and post-test (Mean, Standard deviation, Paired ‘t’ test).

Result: The result of the study showed that the mean post-test knowledge score (17.08) of school children of 10 to 12 years was significantly higher than the mean pre- test knowledge score (9.38). The effectiveness of planned teaching programme regarding first aid was calculated using paired ‘t’ test. The calculated ‘t’ value (16.82) was significantly higher than the table value (t₅₉ = 2.02). So, the planned teaching programme was effective in terms of improving knowledge. The association between the knowledge score and selected demographic variables (age, sex, education of the father, education of the mother, occupation of the father, occupation of the mother) was not significant at P<0.05. Hence there was no association. The association between knowledge and source of information and education status was significant at P<0.05.

Conclusion: The findings of the study support the effectiveness of the planned teaching programme on knowledge regarding first aid among school children of 10 to 12 years who are studying in 6^th standard at selected school of Mangalore and the findings of the study showed that the planned teaching programme was effective in terms of improving the knowledge.