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Fifth Regional Conference on HIV/AIDS Curriculum Development for Primary Schools, Simla , India

Male speakerTeachers, civil society organisations and government delegates from seven Northern Indian states met in Simla, on June 2 - 3, 2005 in the fifth and final of a series of symposia towards the development of an HIV/AIDS curriculum for Primary Schools.

The Simla-Himachal Pradesh programme was organised over four days to immediately follow a meeting of the National Women's Organisation within the All India Federation of Teachers Organisations (AIFTO). It provided an opportunity to receive and update reports from the AIFTO General Secretary Vijay Pandit and Deputy General Secretary Ramesh Joshi on the activities and outcomes of the previous three conferences at which the Commonwealth Secretariat had not been able to attend.

A key outcome from the conference included confirmation that a national curriculum directed at upper level primary school children (which may take the form of a curriculum for teachers and teachers colleges) is being proposed as a follow-up activity. This takes forward the AIFTO commitment to advocating for change in Indian education policy at that level so that information about HIV/AIDS can be conveyed to pre-pubescent school children.

Further notable outcomes of the event were the participation of some representatives who, as teachers, had been embarrassed to raise the issue of HIV/AIDS in their classrooms due to fear of parental dissent. The Ministry of Health for the State of Himachel Pradesh also undertook to upgrade and promote the education initiatives on HIV/AIDS eradication within the province.

The series of conferences, which began with a National Conference in February this year, has enabled the AIFTO, comprising teachers associations and unions from all the states of India, to bring together its leaders and members for dissemination of information about the AIDS pandemic to teachers in all - and particularly remote - states of India.