Education and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia
General HIV data
UNAIDS estimates the number of people living with HIV between 420000 and 1.3 million. The prevalence rate among adults aged 15 to 49 is estimated between 0.9 and 3.5%. The number of children aged 0 to 14 living with HIV is estimated between 30000 and 220000. The number of orphans due to AIDS aged 0 to 17 ranges between 280000 and 870000.
HIV is one of the components of the national Plan for Accelerated Development to End Poverty (Ethiopia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper). The national response to AIDS is built around six strategic issues: capacity-building; community mobilization and empowerment; integration with health programmes; leadership and mainstreaming; coordination and networking; and targeted response.
UNAIDS identifies that there is a grave problem of understaffing and overall deficiency of technical skills manifested in low financial absorption capacity, leading to under spending of financial resources and delayed scale-up of services. In all regions of the country, availability of voluntary counseling and testing and antiretroviral therapy is gradually increasing. In the general population, significant HIV transmission is observed in young people aged 15 – 24 years; girls are especially likely to be exposed to HIV, due to harmful traditional practices, early marriage (often cross-generational and often ending in divorce), female genital mutilation, abduction and violence. Underlying factors contributing to the spread of HIV are poverty, a high rate of unemployment, widespread sex work, gender disparity, rural to urban migration, and harmful traditional practices.
The education sector: gaps and possibilities
Effort needs to be invested in building the capacity of other sectors in order to mainstream AIDS into their core activities. Education is one of those sectors, since it can be a particular effective tool in the prevention of HIV. According to UNESCO data the second Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP II) included HIV and AIDS as an impacting force on further educational development. The Ministry of Education has no specific HIV/AIDS policy, though there is an education sector HIV/AIDS strategic plan.There are regional and sub-regional education structures responsible for implementing a response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The ministry does not have a policy of non-discrimination with regard to recruitment, advancement, continued employment and benefits for personnel affected by HIV and AIDS and Ethiopia does not enforce confidentiality of information about ministry employees affected by HIV and AIDS. HIV/AIDS and life skills are integral components in the curriculum of teacher preparation, yet no systematic monitoring and reporting system seems in place with regards to the implementation of HIV and AIDS programmes in teacher training. According to Unesco evidence from the regions shows that teachers are insufficiently trained in HIV/AIDS compliant and culturally appropriate content and methods.
Partner organisations report a number of issues that influence and further engrave the problems related with HIV: Gender inequality, early marriage, early pregnancies, abductions, intergenerational sex, peer pressure. In addition, it is mentioned that socialising often takes place at home rather then in school. For teachers and head masters HIV, STI’s and sexuality is often still a difficult subject to talk about.
Generally, a picture emerges of an HIV/AIDS education program of the Ministry of Education (MOE) that has successfully created awareness, a feeling of concern and a degree of commitment among the education community, but that is hampered in its implementation as a result of a lack of reliable resources, inadequate coordination and management structures (donor and NGO driven), stigmatization and discrimination with respect to both HIV/AIDS and gender, a lack of adequate regional data on HIV/AIDS impact for planning purposes and a lack of commitment and urgency among some members of the school community, compounded by other pressing social problems such as poverty and famine. Although the Ministry claims to have a programme to address the needs of OVC in the education system, the regions report that there is no systematic support for OVC access to education.