Education Key to Combating HIV/AIDS in Africa

‘Good Practices in Education Sector Response to HIV and AIDS in Africa’ is the theme of a regional workshop organised by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa on behalf of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) in Boksburg, north of Johannesburg, South Africa.

A set of practical suggestions aimed at assisting countries’ education sectors in combating the global epidemic and its effects is being developed at the workshop, which seeks to provide a forum for the sharing, presentation and reviewing of effective responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa. The three-day programme, which started on 12 September 2006, is being attended by 40 officials and technical experts from the Secretariat, ADEA, local universities and non-governmental organisations from Commonwealth African countries.

“HIV/AIDS remains a major health, social, economic and developmental challenge with Sub-Saharan Africa disproportionately affected,” said Dr Henry Kaluba, Adviser and Head of the Secretariat’s Education Section.

“On one hand, HIV and AIDS have affected the supply of educators because of the relatively high incidence of this disease impacting on teachers. On the other hand, it has made millions of children orphans, thereby increasing the responsibility of schools and teachers.”

Education Section Adviser Jyotsna Jha added that there is increasingly clear evidence that providing children and adolescents with access to schools is among the most effective and cost-effective means of preventing HIV.

“Quality education influences not only the acquisition of knowledge, but also the development of constructive attitudes, skills and behaviour needed to develop personal and societal responses to the epidemic,” she stated.

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service, Issue 302, 13 September 2006

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