When should young people start to be taught about AIDS?

When should young people start to be taught about AIDS?

There is no set age at which AIDS education should start, and different countries have different regulations and recommendations. Often young people are denied life-saving AIDS education because adults consider the information to be too ‘adult’ for young people. These attitudes hinder HIV prevention, as it is crucial that young people know about HIV and how it is transmitted before they are exposed to situations that carry a risk of HIV infection.

AIDS education should begin as early as possible. Information can be adapted so that awareness of AIDS can begin from an early age whilst still ensuring that topics are age-appropriate. For example, UNESCO guidelines advise that basic education on human reproduction should begin as early as age five. This information provides the foundation on which children can build AIDS specific knowledge and skills as they develop; education about condoms and how they can protect from HIV infection can be introduced from around age nine.²⁷

Active learning

Young people doing group work as part of an AIDS education programme in Thailand

Simply providing young people with information about HIV and AIDS is not enough to ensure that they will absorb and retain that information. Effective AIDS education encourages young people to participate and engage with the information that is being presented to them by offering them the opportunity to apply it.²⁸ Group-work and role-play are particularly important methods in which students might discover the practical aspects of the information they are given. These methods also allow pupils an opportunity to practise and build skills – saying “No” to sex, for example.

Active learning approaches are widely considered to be the most effective way for young people to learn health-related and social-skills.²⁹ Furthermore, active learning offers an opportunity to make AIDS education lessons fun. AIDS education classes can be constructed to involve quizzes, games, or drama, for example – and can still be very effective learning sessions.

Avert.org has a selection of educational quizzes and an AIDS game to test young people's knowledge in a fun and interactive way.