Making a Difference Strengthening Education Sector Responses to HIV/AIDS International AIDS Conference Bangkok, 13 th July 2004 M. J. Kelly, Lusaka, Zambia

2 Two 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

3 Education’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 when  the curriculum did not contain much, if any, HIV/AIDS, sexuality or reproductive health education  the education provided was not always of high quality  What contributed to decline in infection rates was not what they learned, but that they learned

4 Implications  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

5 Education Plays a Central Role in Dismantling the Vicious Cycle of Poverty, Gender Inequality, and HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS POVERTY GENDER INEQUALITY EDUCATION

6 Critical Pathways to Achieving HIV 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

7 How Education Protects Against HIV  Mechanisms are not perfectly clear, but they seem to include the way  becoming 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)

8 The Dilemma Facing Policy- makers  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

9 Making the Education Response More 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

10 What 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 with  Gender  Relationships  Sexuality  Reproductive health  Substance abuse  The nature and role of a healthy life style  Human rights

11 Helping Students Avoid HIV Transmission  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

12 The 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

13 Challenges 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

14 Conclusion  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