HIV/AIDS challenges global ambition of education for all

HIV and AIDS-related deaths as well as the ‘brain drain’ and poor working conditions are all contributing to teacher shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to research conducted by Dennis Sinyolo, Education Co-ordinator of Education International (EI), the umbrella organisation that represents the world’s teachers’ unions.

The findings, which were presented at the third Commonwealth Teacher Research Symposium held in Maputo, Mozambique, in February 2008, are included in a new Commonwealth Secretariat publication, ‘Gender, HIV/AIDS and the Status of Teachers’, edited by Dr Roli Degazon-Johnson, Education Adviser at the Secretariat.

“HIV/AIDS is a life-threatening illness which has a particular impact on children and teachers,” writes Richard Bourne, Senior Research Fellow at the University of London, in the foreword to the publication. “It challenges the global ambition to provide a worthwhile education for all. Support for testing and positive living can start with teachers in schools and influence whole communities.”

Mr Sinyolo conducted a 14-month survey of six Commonwealth countries – The Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia – which found that the average annual rate of loss of teachers suffering from AIDS was 4 per cent.

He also found that teachers’ salaries in these countries were generally low and below the poverty line, and that conditions of service were also poor with many schools not having any or adequate accommodation for their teachers.

In his keynote address in Maputo, Professor Michael Kelly of the University of Zambia pointed out that HIV infection rates in the Commonwealth are twice the world average and for every 10 infected men there are 14 infected adult women.

“This has implications for the teaching profession and the delivery of educational services, since a high percentage of teachers, especially those in pre-schools and primary schools, are female. There is a potential loss of teachers in terms of sickness and deaths,” he said.

To overcome losing teachers to HIV and AIDS, participants at the symposium recommended, among other things, that the governments focus on overcoming stigma, so that education workers are not afraid of AIDS testing or of losing their jobs if they are HIV positive. They also suggested giving positive support, including financial help and food allowances for victims and their families.

This was the first time the symposium was held outside the UK. Researchers from Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Zambia participated in the two-day event.

This publication was officially launched at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s World Teachers’ Day event on 3 October 2008 in Marlborough House, London.

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