Message to WCED staff by Cameron Dugmore, MEC for Education in the Western Cape, on World AIDS Day

Dear fellow staff member of WCED:

Our country and sub-continent is home to an estimated 25,8 million HIV-positive people, which is more than half the 40,3 million worldwide. Almost 6 million South Africans are living with HIV, an increase of 500,000 from last year, the highest caseload of any country anywhere in the world!

Women and young girls between 15 and 25 are especially vulnerable and four times as much at risk than young men. A recent HSRC household survey found that 6% of all infections were among children, who will be entering our school system.

Despite new evidence suggesting that prevention efforts are having a positive effect in a small but growing number of countries, the big picture remains bleak (according to a joint UNAIDS and WHO report released just short of two weeks ago).

Some positive feedback from the just-released HSRC Second National Household Survey suggests that education and prevention efforts in South Africa (and the Western Cape) are still not leveraging the desired turn-around that has been achieved in some other African countries.

The continued high number of sexual partners, regular turnover of sexual partners and concurrent sexual partnerships are major contributory factors.

Condoms provide effective protection from infection. Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) also has a proven effect on reducing the number of sexual partners, increasing the usage of condoms and, in younger people, delaying sexual activity.

More than 16,000 educators in the Western Cape have been trained to deliver HIV/AIDS and life-skills education in the classroom, and prevention education thus takes place in just about every school in the province - as part of the curriculum.

HIV/AIDS life-skills education has, until now, been largely restricted to the Life Orientation learning area (or subject). From next year, however, the curriculum strategy will also move to the other learning areas, as well as the non-formal curriculum (inclusive of sport and cultural activities).

There will be resistance to this move. But education has a moral responsibility to deal with the realities of young people growing up in a world in which their chances of becoming HIV positive are as much as 50%, and in some communities, even higher.

Importantly, the approach must be right, and it may vary from one school-community to the next. It is not just the content but the knowledge, skills and attitudes that must be appropriately taught.

Currently, our teaching approach is still largely didactic and/or moralistic - and thus counter-productively contributing to AIDS-fatigue.

Educators need to be far more creative and dynamic in their approach. They should focus their efforts on addressing the real needs of their learners, and on creating a safe environment in which these can be discussed - rather than racing through "grade-appropriate" information that may have little bearing on over-aged learners and/or local socio-economic conditions.

The Teacher Guides and Learner Workbooks provided by the department are not infallible in such cases - they are merely resources that should be adapted, added to, or discarded as improved and vitally relevant lessons are developed by educators as they grow increasingly skilled in dealing with this notoriously sensitive and thus difficult area of learning.

Teaching about HIV and AIDS has to be about the most difficult challenge any teacher must face. Parents and care-givers need to be drawn into this process, and schools are therefore encouraged to host information sessions and, together with local partners, to offer parenting courses.

Increasingly, the Education system is bending and groaning under the weight of tens of thousands of orphans and an ever-increasing number of vulnerable children whose parents or care-givers are ill or dying as a consequence of AIDS - and as consequence to the non-availability of ARVs at the time.

Child-headed households are omnipresent and the challenge is to keep such children in the school system - to keep them from the streets, protect them against sexual abuse, labour exploitation and permanent relegation to the unemployed and those subsisting off social grants - rather than becoming economic contributors to a growing the Cape.

More than ever before our educators are burning out with stress - as an added consequence of increased demands for psycho-social or pastoral support. This, quite apart from any of the other demands of a struggling system.

Responding to HIV/AIDS in the school-community can thus never be the sole responsibility of the Education Department alone. Schools must become more community-oriented; they have to become "hubs" or "nodes" of additional activities - including the provision of care and support to vulnerable learners.

From 2006, two additional programmes will therefore be rolled out to school-communities: a Care and Support programme, in partnership with other government departments, NGOs and faith-based organisations, and a Management and Governance programme that will assist education institutions (schools) in developing locally-relevant HIV/AIDS management plans.

Now, more than ever, schools need to nurture and develop their community-based "partners".  Now, more than ever too, leadership is critical.

The Western Cape Government has already taken the initiative in rolling out ARVs to over 13,000 patients - just over two thirds towards meeting the current need. Similar pro-active leadership needs to be reflected in the Education Department at every level.

It is not enough to point to the failure of politicians or senior officials to provide the necessary leadership - school principals are responsible for all their learners and staff; teachers are responsible for an entire class of children.

AIDS will affect every one of us. Role-modeling the desired behaviour and attitudes is critical to turning around the epidemic - and safeguarding the future of the Education system. This is but one critical area of leadership.

Failure to take leadership will result in many of the gains of the past ten years being lost; academic performance, teacher and learner drop-out, numeracy and literacy levels, maths, science and technology output, etc. will all decline or deteriorate.

But taking on the challenge will increase our general resilience, and lead toward a more future-oriented, caring, entrepreneurial nation.

As we commemorate World AIDS Day, please remember all those dedicated teachers and helpless learners who have already died, and the many tens of thousands already affected.

Cameron Dugmore
MEC for Education
Western Cape

AIDS HELPLINE 0800 012 322
www.aidsinfo.co.za