Objective: To evaluate the self awareness of professional competencies and its development of teachers for health in primary and secondary schools in Shanghai, so as to provide a reference for development of professional competencies and future specialized development. Methods: A survey was conducted among 1 722 teachers for health in primary and secondary school by the professional competency questionnaire. Results: Most of the teachers for health had bachelor s degrees (65.6%) and junior professional titles (43.4%), the full time teachers accounted for 66.5%, the percentage of teaching health education courses was 69.8 %, 7.7% took part in the formal class of schedule; the two top scorers were the dimension of "professional ethic as a teacher" and "school public health prevention and control" (4.68±0.43, 4.55±0.47); the two lowest scorers dimensions were related to school health education with increasing standard deviation (3.96±0.66, 3.91±0.65); the mean of self rated competency of the 6-14 years working experience group was slightly higher in all dimensions, that of 15 years or above group was lower than 6-14 years group in the total system and the dimensions of professional ethic as a teacher and emergency handling of accidents, and in responsing specific health problems dimension, the mean of 15 years or above group lower than that of 1-5 years group ( P <0.05). Conclusion The entry threshold of teachers for health in primary and secondary school is a critical consideration; Teachers competency preparations are satisfying in professional ethics and school public health prevention/control; meanwhile, the overall health education competencies were insufficient, and noticeable differences in the competency level among teachers are observed. It suggest drawing up entry qualifications and professional standards for health education teachers to guide the teacher s learning and improvement, calling for facilitating the professional promotion of teachers at the government s policy level.