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Background:Primary school teacher's knowledge and attitudes toward epilepsy can havesignificant impact on the performance and psycho-social development of theepileptic child. Our objectives were to study teacher’s knowledge and attitudesand identify areas in which further teacher training and education arerequired.Methods:A stratified random sample surveyinvolving a group of primary school teachers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia included private/publicschools designated for male and female students. A structured 37-itemquestionnaire was used to examine their demographics, knowledge, attitudes, andexperience with epilepsy.  Results: Six hundred and twenty primary school teachers working in public (58%)or private (42%) schools were included with ages ranging between 21-59 years(mean 36). Most teachers (79%) were of Saudi Arabian nationality and 66% had acollege or university degree. Their years of experience ranged from 1 to 35(mean 13.5). Only 17% of the teachers felt very well informed about epilepsy. Teacherswith higher education were more likely to have goody knowledge (p=0.009).Teachers of Saudi nationality were also more likely to report good knowledge,independent of their educational level (p=0.013). Overall, teachers with goodknowledge were less likely to have negative attitudes including minding to havean epileptic child in their class (p=0.028) or thinking that they should beplaced in a special classroom (p=0.029).   Conclusions: Primaryschool teacher's knowledge needs improvements.Their attitudes correlated highly with their knowledge. Educational campaigns about epilepsy are needed to develop a wellinformed and tolerant community.

teacher / school / knowledge / attitude / child / epilepsy