Making a Difference

Strengthening Education Sector Responses to HIV/AIDS

International AIDS Conference

Bangkok, 13th July 2004

M. J. Kelly, Lusaka, Zambia

mjkelly@zamnet.zm

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Two PrinciplesTwo Principles

1. In the struggle with HIV/AIDS, education makes a large and beneficial difference

2. The difference education makes could be greater and even more beneficial

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Education’s Effective ResponseEducation’s Effective Response The most effective education response to HIV/AIDS is

education itself Declining infection rates by level of education have

occurred among those who attended school at a time whenthe curriculum did not contain much, if any, HIV/AIDS,

sexuality or reproductive health educationthe education provided was not always of high quality

What contributed to decline in infection rates was not what they learned, but that they learned

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ImplicationsImplications The most powerful education sector response to

HIV/AIDS is to get children into school, keep them in school for as many years as possible, and while they are at school teach them worthwhile knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes

In this respect, HIV/AIDS is similar to poverty, other health problems, and the empowerment of girls and women—education as education is the most powerful force that can be used to change learners for the better

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Education Plays a Central Role in Education Plays a Central Role in Dismantling the Vicious Cycle of Poverty, Dismantling the Vicious Cycle of Poverty,

Gender Inequality, and HIV/AIDSGender Inequality, and HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS

POVERTYGENDER

INEQUALITY

EDUCATION

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Critical Pathways to Achieving Critical Pathways to Achieving HIV PreventionHIV Prevention

EFA and millennium development goals: Ensure that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieve gender equality in education by 2015

Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases

At current rates of progress these goals will all be missed Millions of children are being doomed to continued ignorance, poverty,

illness and disempowerment Millions who could be saved by education are heading for HIV infection

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How Education Protects Against HIVHow Education Protects Against HIV Mechanisms are not perfectly clear, but they seem to include

the waybecoming literate and numerate enhances one’s potential to

make discerning use of information (learning these skills requires attention to detail, new skills in evaluating information, openness to extended range of knowledge sources)

general education enhances the potential to foresee and plan for the future (hidden curriculum of routines & procedures; delayed gratification; generation of hope)

education accelerates favorable socio-cultural changes (status and role of women/girls; power relations; empowerment of the marginalised)

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The Dilemma Facing Policy-The Dilemma Facing Policy-makersmakers

Should they put resources into making the response more effective or put them into extending the use of the existing response?

That is, should they work on curriculum modification (and its costly time-consuming implications) or on universalising access to good quality education?

Is this a real dichotomy? Approaches will differ according to country

circumstances

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Making the Education Response Making the Education Response More EffectiveMore Effective

Strengthen the education response to HIV/AIDS by more conscious attention to enabling the entire school community to live responsibly, safely and productively in a world with HIV and AIDS

Necessitates major adjustments in the curriculum and the way teaching takes place

Also necessitates a school environment that is rights-inspired, healthy, safe, violence-free, and learner-friendly

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What the Curriculum should IncludeWhat the Curriculum should Include

The curriculum response to HIV/AIDS should ensure the integration into classroom activities of good quality skills-based sexual health and preventive HIV/AIDS education, including life-skills

HIV/AIDS prevention programmes should deal withGenderRelationshipsSexualityReproductive healthSubstance abuseThe nature and role of a healthy life styleHuman rights

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Helping Students Avoid HIV Helping Students Avoid HIV TransmissionTransmission

Make them well informed Help them recognize their personal vulnerability Promote life-affirming attitudes and values Deepen their understanding of the meaning and

implications of sexuality and relationships Create a culture that does not tolerate substance

abuse (alcohol, drug taking) Place great stress on living a healthy life (exercise,

nutrition, positive approach) Encourage them to get treatment for STIs Help them to talk easily about HIV and AIDS Show zero tolerance for stigma and discrimination

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The Way ForwardThe Way Forward

Emphasis placed on education for all, for as long as possible, and especially for girls

A teacher in every class HIV/AIDS, life skills, and sexuality education

mainstreamed into school curricula Holistic support available for orphans and for

infected and affected educators and learners Schools working very closely with communities

and vice versa Recognition of the need for all-encompassing

partnerships and coalitions with an agreed common purpose

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Challenges to be FacedChallenges to be Faced Creating the political will and

management capacity in MOEs to tackle HIV/AIDS in education

Helping MOEs establish a prevention to care continuum in every part of the sector

Developing and retaining counterpart human resources

Reducing stigma and denial surrounding HIV/AIDS in the school environment

Helping MOEs to be more proactive in providing education to out-of-school youth, especially those at high HIV risk

Responding to the epidemic through education in low prevalence countries

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ConclusionConclusion Be prepared for a long-term commitment—

HIV/AIDS has swept across the world with dramatic speed; it will disappear much more slowly

Be prepared for the unexpected, for the situation to mutate as speedily as the virus itself does—ensure flexible mechanisms that allow for a quick response to unforeseen circumstances

Be confident that the future can be better than the past and that education can help in making it so