AEGiS-15IAC: [LbOrE37] BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE SCHOOL AND COMMUNITTIES: SCHOOL GOVERNING BODIES WORKING WITH SCHOOLS TO PROTECT THEIR CHILDREN AGAINT HIV AND MANAGE THE IMPACT OF AIDS AT SCHOOL

15th International AIDS Conference

Bangkok, Thailand — July 11-July 16, 2004

[LbOrE37] BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE SCHOOL AND COMMUNITTIES: SCHOOL GOVERNING BODIES WORKING WITH SCHOOLS TO PROTECT THEIR CHILDREN AGAINT HIV AND MANAGE THE IMPACT OF AIDS AT SCHOOL

Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16;15:Abstract No. LbOrE37

K Magome¹, M Prew²
¹Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa; ²Department of Education, Pretoria, South Africa

ISSUES: The South African Education Sector has a comprehensive response focusing on limiting the spread of HIV and mitigating the impact of AIDS across the different levels of the education system. The lack of community support as well as insufficient emphasis on specific community contexts has been cited as one reason for continuing high levels of HIV and apparent limited impact of school-based programmes.

DESCRIPTION: In response, the Ministry developed three resource guides: For parents- what parents need to know; For school governing bodies (SGBs) and School Management Teams (SMTs)- Develop an HIV/AIDS plan for your school; and For Education planners- Manage HIV/AIDS in your district and province. The Objectives of the guides are to: 1) Provide practical guidance to parents on how to work with school to protect their children against HIV; 2) Guide SGBs and SMTs on how to analyse the local HIV/AIDS epidemic and develop context-specific responses; and to 3) Guide provincial and district managers on mainstreaming HIV/AIDS into planning and translate national HIV/AIDS policy into local action. SGBs from 81 schools in high prevalence areas across the country were trained on the use of the guides as a pilot. The schools were later followed to assess implementation.

LESSONS LEARNT: Practical guidance and increased participation alleviates parent resistance to HIV/AIDS programmes at school. Equipping SGBs on how to analyse the epidemic helps to get to the root of new infections, change attitudes and increase interest in confronting HIV/AIDS with the school. Equipping SMTs to deal with challenges such as managing HIV positive teachers and absenteeism is urgent. The guides bridged the gap between what happens inside the school gates and outside, and created a supportive environment for HIV preventive behaviour.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Need to provide practical guidance to parents and SGBs in order to enable a deeper analysis of what drives HIV/AIDS and how to respond at a local level.

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