AIDS education for young people around the world: Case studies

AIDS education for young people around the world: Case studies

There is no single model of AIDS education that is appropriate to every country; different situations call for different responses. However, the experiences of AIDS education programmes around the world can provide important insights when designing and implementing AIDS education for young people.³³

Kenya

Kenya has witnessed a declining HIV prevalence in recent years – in 1997/98 the prevalence was estimated at 10 percent; by 2009 this figure had lowered by more than a third to 6.3 percent.^{34 35} The decline has been attributed to a number of factors, including a reduction in risky behaviours.³⁶ Kenya’s education sector has taken an active role in the country’s response to the AIDS epidemic, having a particularly positive effect on HIV and AIDS awareness and leading to a reduction of risk behaviour among young people.³⁷

Kenya has integrated AIDS education into all subjects at school, and introduced a weekly compulsory HIV and AIDS lesson into all primary and secondary curricula. An evaluation of 2000 schools found that AIDS education is effectively promoting healthy behaviours and reducing the risk of infection.³⁸

One particularly successful initiative has been the Primary School Action for Better Health Kenya (PSABH). PSABH began in October 2001 in Nyanza Province with the aim of creating positive behaviour change among upper primary school pupils to reduce their risk of exposure to HIV.³⁹ The programme involves training the head teacher, a senior classroom teacher and one parent/community representative from each participating school, on a week-long course. One term later, two additional teachers are trained. Topics that are covered include:

• Information on the routes of HIV transmission and prevention strategies
• Skill-building for resisting the social, cultural and interpersonal pressures to engage in sexual intercourse
• Adolescent health and sexuality
• Issues related to HIV stigma and discrimination
• The care of people living with AIDS

Teachers are then taught how to train their colleagues at school and how to integrate HIV education within classroom subjects. With the aim of a national roll-out, around 11,000 out of 19,000 Kenyan schools had implemented PSABH by June 2006.⁴⁰

Evaluations of the programme revealed positive results – an increase in condom use among boys was reported and girls were more likely to decrease or delay sexual activity.⁴¹

India

In India, where young people represent a large proportion of the country’s population, an estimated 2.27 million people are living with HIV.⁴² In phase II of the country's National AIDS Control Programme, the Adolescent Education Programme (AEP) was launched. The programme aimed to train teachers and peer educators to educate the student community both in and out of school about life skills, HIV prevention and HIV related stigma and discrimination. Under the initiative 112,000 schools were covered and 288,000 teachers were trained.⁴³

However, there is a discrepancy between the large amount of effort invested in HIV/AIDS curricula and training packages on a national level, and the lack of actual education being carried out in many schools. In the states of the country where there is a relatively low HIV prevalence, officials have been reluctant to encourage AIDS education, claiming that the problem is not significant enough in these areas to warrant a widespread educational response.⁴⁴ In reality, it is crucial that young people learn about AIDS in areas with a low prevalence so that the prevalence stays low.

In 2007 it was reported that a number of states had decided not to implement the Adolescence Education Programme in its present form, rejecting the material that had been supplied.⁴⁵ Many young people across India are still not receiving information about HIV/AIDS.

“We had a session on AIDS in school once, but it was sketchy. I still do not know the difference between HIV and AIDS. We could not ask any questions, because the boys in our class would tease us later... At home, my mother knows even less, and my father would not allow such a conversation”.