UNESCO Handout
27 April 2009
1
The Education Sector’s role in positive prevention
The education sector is an important player in national responses to HIV and
AIDS, with a unique reach to children and young people, and a significant role in
national development. By adopting and implementing a comprehensive
approach to HIV, the education sector can reduce stigma and discrimination,
improve the quality of life of learners and staff, and in the longer run, contribute to
the behavioural and societal changes needed to prevent new infections. A
comprehensive response includes attention to the policy framework,
management and systems; educator training and support; content, curriculum
and learning materials; and quality. This kind of comprehensive approach is
reflected in the UNAIDS initiative EDUCAIDS, led by UNESCO.1
This
comprehensive approach is important in all epidemiological settings: this briefing
focuses on highly affected countries because of the urgency and scale of the
challenges facing them.
Positive learners
The increase in the number of children and young people living with HIV poses
new challenges to the education sector, especially in highly affected countries.
Given increased access to treatment, the need to support HIV-positive learners
at schools in these countries will only grow in urgency and scale. However, there
is a severe lack of data and evidence on the special educational needs of HIV+
children and young people. Existing information addresses mainly their general
vulnerabilities. Consequently, there is little understanding of how the education
sector should support this vulnerable group of learners. In highly affected
countries, families or carers of HIV-positive children are likely to have been
adversely affected by HIV and AIDS themselves, and their capacity to provide
support severely tested.
In this context, the school has a particularly important role, starting with ensuring
that HIV-positive learners are supported to stay in school (by facilitating access
to grants and other practical support), and assisted to access the HIV-specific
services they need (by referral to appropriate services for treatment and care –
ideally, youth-friendly services). In some situations, the schools themselves may
be centres of care and support (as in models being explored in an initiative of the
Southern African Development Community, for the highly affected countries of
the sub-region: see the resources listed at the end of this document for further
information).
Despite the obvious importance of schools in providing education on sex,
relationships and HIV, too few young people receive anything approaching
adequate preparation for adult sexual life. In many HIV and AIDS curricula,
discussion of sex is simply avoided or else the focus is placed, often exclusively,
on the potential negative consequences of sex. The challenges of providing
1
See UNESCO’s AIDS web portal for more information, resources and country update on
EDUCAIDS.

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27 April 2009
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evidence-based and age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education are
substantial. Ultimately, governments need to show strong leadership in
supporting the introduction of such programmes and ensuring that education
sector staff and teachers are trained and supported, and good curricula and
materials are developed and widely available.
A particularly challenging issue relates to the needs of HIV-positive adolescents
as they grow up and begin their sexual lives. Good educational programmes
need to include specific consideration of these learners, so that they can develop
the knowledge, attitude and skills they need to live positively, including for their
sexual lives.
Educators
Many of the actions and approaches outlined in relation to positive learners are
dependent on the understanding and cooperation of educators. UNESCO’s work
has focused on teachers in the formal sector, but educators in the informal sector
face many of the same issues. Teachers are required: to provide psycho-social
support, to identify learners in need of material support and refer them to the
appropriate sources, to refer learners to health services and, not least, to provide
comprehensive sexuality education. For teachers in countries with under-funded,
over-stretched education systems, these requirements may impose a heavy
burden of extra responsibilities.
Teachers have a particular position in society, as educators, custodians and role
models for children and young people. For some teachers, this sense of position
may compound personal difficulties in teaching issues related to sexuality,
especially if living with HIV themselves, or affected by HIV in their families and
communities. Those living with HIV may be unwilling to disclose their status due
to fear of discrimination, unfair treatment or loss of employment. Precisely
because of their special role, they may be subject to heightened stigma, with
parents feeling it unacceptable for their children to be taught by an HIV-positive
teacher.
The education sector has the responsibility to support all educators and to
demonstrate zero tolerance towards acts of HIV-related discrimination.
Coordinated action needs to be taken by ministries of education, teachers’
unions, school management and development partners, in order for HIV-positive
teachers to continue teaching in a supportive environment and be involved in the
education sector response to the epidemic, and for all teachers to be supported
to teach the comprehensive sexuality programmes that are so urgently needed.
This requires the following actions:
• Identifying the needs of teachers living with HIV: teachers are not a
homogenous group and their needs will vary according to a number of
factors, including sex, age, geographic location and level of access to
services. Appropriate and comprehensive education sector policies on

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27 April 2009
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HIV and AIDS and, more specifically, education sector workplace policies
on HIV and AIDS, are key to addressing these needs.
• Ensuring access to confidential prevention programmes, treatment,
care and support: it is important to build on existing public services,
rather than creating parallel programmes specifically for teachers which
may inadvertently increase stigmatisation.
• Providing peer support: on a day to day basis, some of the most
pressing challenges facing HIV-positive teachers are in their workplace.
Networks of HIV-positive teachers have been vocal advocates for their
members in East and Southern Africa (with nascent groups emerging
more recently in West Africa), but are still limited in membership and with
relatively undeveloped structures and challenges in sustainability.
• Developing partnerships between HIV-positive teachers’ networks
and teachers’ unions: the strongest potential allies of these networks are
teachers’ unions, the largest and most organised bodies promoting the
interests and welfare of teachers. It is this partnership which is in the best
position to take up occupational issues related to HIV-positive teachers.
• Linking HIV-positive teachers’ networks and organisations of people
living with HIV: aside from professional issues, HIV-positive teachers
have personal concerns and needs in common with all people living with
HIV, including positive living, treatment education and support, decisions
about disclosure, and family and relationship issues.
For additional information:
www.unesco.org/aids
Supporting HIV-Positive Teachers in East and Southern Africa: Technical Consultation Report
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001536/153603e.pdf
Supporting the educational needs of HIV-positive learners
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0017/001786/178601eb.pdf
School-centred HIV and AIDS care and support in Southern Africa: consultation report
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001578/157860e.pdf
EDUCAIDS resource pack:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001584/158428E.pdf
An HIV and AIDS Workplace Policy for the Education Sector in Southern Africa
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001469/146933E.pdf
An HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy for the Education Sector in the Caribbean
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001472/147278E.pdf
Forthcoming:
Positive Partnerships: A Toolkit for the Greater Involvement of People Living with or Affected by
HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean Education Sector
EDC and UNESCO