Tamil Nadu: Schools' HIV/AIDS lessons are failing young people, finds major new study

[Guest guest]

Dear Colleagues,

Below is the press release for a new report published by ActionAid. To access

the full report: http://www.actionaid.org/resources/pdfs/soundofsilence.pdf or

else contact me and I can send you a hard copy.

PRESS RELEASE:

Schools' HIV/AIDS lessons are failing young people, finds major new study

Children in Africa and Asia are being badly let down by their respective

teaching systems warns ActionAid in a hard-hitting new report. The charity's

comprehensive study found that in schools, stigma, fear and embarrassment

prevent open discussion about HIV and in particular the virus's links with

unsafe sex. This is leaving young people at risk.

Fifteen to 24 year olds are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and almost

a half of all new infections - around 6,000 daily - occur in this age group.

Donors and governments have rushed into providing HIV/AIDS curricula as quickly

and as widely as possible, but knowledge of how HIV/AIDS lessons are taught is

sparse and often anecdotal.

Report author Tania Boler said: " Globally an estimated 12 million young people

are living with HIV/AIDS. These numbers are on a steep upward trajectory. It is

vital that we understand whether teachers are responding to the challenges posed

by the epidemic and how they teach the HIV/AIDS syllabus. "

ActionAid's report The Sound of Silence looked at how the HIV/AIDS curriculum is

taught in Nyanza province in Kenya and Tamil Nadu state in India. It shows that

there is overwhelming demand from parents and students for HIV/AIDS education.

Over 80 per cent of parents want their children to learn about HIV/AIDS at

school compared to less than five per cent who strongly disapprove.

However, the report finds that those who strongly disapprove of HIV education

overly influence teachers. Frightened of parental disapproval - which they

perceive to be greater than it is - teachers often skip HIV lessons as laid out

in the curriculum or fall back on a very scientific teaching approach, shying

away from talking about sex within the local situation.

Additionally, teachers exercise a self-imposed veto on sections of the

curriculum that deal with any practices they feel will offend local beliefs. In

Kenya particularly, Catholicism is having a big effect on the way HIV is taught

and teachers view this as having a negative impact. This is particularly

apparent around issues of safe sex, condom use and abstinence.

One headteacher was quoted as saying: " Being a Catholic-sponsored school, the

use of condoms is definitely totally disapproved and abstinence is taught to

girls... there is a motto of 'close your thighs and open your books'. "

Tania Boler said: " There is a fear amongst teachers, parents and religious

leaders that educating young people about methods of safer sex will lead to

sexual experimentation and promiscuity.

" Encouraging abstinence has an important part to play in HIV prevention,

particularly around the age of first sexual experience. But failure to talk

about other methods of prevention such as condom use excludes young people who

are already sexually active and limits access to potentially life-saving

information for all. "

The narrowness of the HIV syllabus was also found to divorce young people from

the reality of the epidemic in their communities. Worryingly, a sizeable number

of students view HIV as something that does not personally affect them and they

do not see themselves as being at risk, despite living in regions with high

infection rates.

Alongside the lack of concern over personal risk, the report also discovered a

culture of blame. Teachers, parents and students consistently repeated that

outsiders were responsible for the typical indicators of risky behaviour such as

teenage pregnancy.

In Tamil Nadu a headteacher blamed pre-marital pregnancy on the influence of

boys and girls from nearby Kerala state, whilst in Kenya a female student said:

" The girls who left school this year due to pregnancies were all newcomers who

transferred to this school recently. We believe they were already pregnant even

as they came. "

ActionAid suggests that it is inherently limiting to have an HIV/AIDS lesson

that does not address local teenage sexuality. In order to counteract the

culture of blame and embarrassment it advises that syllabuses draw upon local

statistics of prevalence and local case studies and that young people should

initially be taught about HIV/AIDS in single sex groups, with women teachers

talking to girls, men to boys. It also calls for more teacher training - less

than half the teachers interviewed received any.

As well as looking at attitudes to HIV/AIDS education and responsibilities for

curriculum delivery, the report investigated the effects of the wider crisis in

education in the developing world where spending per pupil is in rapid decline,

the fact that less than 50 per cent of children progress beyond primary school,

and that many never attend school at all. To combat this the report recommends

that HIV/AIDS education be extended not only to primary school but also beyond

the classroom. There is a need to target parents, the extended family, community

and religious leaders, in order to reach those children excluded from education.

" It takes special skills to talk about sex and a life-threatening disease,

especially in countries where sex, and consequently HIV, are linked to

immorality. These are big obstacles but they can be overcome, " said Tania Boler.

____________________

Feedback and comments welcome.

Best regards

Tania.

Tania Boler

Education and HIV Adviser

ActionAid

Macdonald Road

London N19 5PG

Direct Line: 0207 561 7568