PHP include elements - is html meta tag necessary?

Hi everyone,

I'm new to using PHP include elements. I've decided to use the PHP include code for my header and footer so I don't have to manually change every page when I edit these elements.

So, in my /include folder I have footer.php and header.php, and everything is working just great. However, I was wondering if I have to include the following html meta tag code in the header.php and footer.php files?:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html">

Or can I leave this out and just have the header/footer html information?

Many thanks for your time.