HIV/AIDS education in schools and literacy centres

Project description

Title: HIV/AIDS education in schools and literacy centres
Commissioned by: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
Country: Niger
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Basic Education and Literacy
Overall term: June 2004 to May 2007

Context

Compared with other African countries, the proportion of Niger’s population infected with HIV (1.2 percent) is still relatively low. Various factors, however—poverty, the low literacy rate, a very young population, and the growing number of migratory workers among the male rural population—are hastening the rate of new infections and spreading the disease, primarily in rural areas.

In a society traditionally influenced by Islam, informing the widely differing target groups appropriately is proving difficult. To date, elementary school curricula do not yet systematically include information about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, although people between 10 and 21 years of age at the beginning of sexual activity are precisely the population group especially hard-hit by the spread of HIV/AIDS. Besides these young people, their teachers are also threatened and affected to a more than average extent by the AIDS pandemic. In many African countries, this has already led to disastrous consequences in the educational system.

In view of this, the issue of AIDS is to be systematically integrated into the training syllabi for teachers and into the curriculum of elementary and secondary schools.

Objective

School children, teachers and adults who have achieved literacy in various population groups in Niger make responsible decisions about HIV/AIDS in their sexual relationships and act accordingly.

Approach

The project develops and disseminates teaching materials adapted to language and culture for primary and secondary school pupils and learners in adult education. Literacy-teaching manuals continue to be produced which facilitate working with multipliers. Teaching materials are produced in French and the five principal national languages, and the subject of HIV/AIDS is mainstreamed in all school subjects.

Further training and awareness-raising measures are conducted for educational authorities at national, regional, and departmental levels, and primary and secondary school education experts receive methodological training in the use of teaching materials so that they can pass this knowledge on to teachers and literacy instructors.

Subsequently the teaching material is placed at the disposal of schools in the project region and distributed to other regions of the country by way of regional school boards.

Results achieved so far

Awareness-raising at national level has led to recognition by the government of the necessity for systematic HIV/AIDS information in the schools. The Ministry of Basic Education and Literacy acquired funding from the Global Fund and the World Bank which enabled the production and use in schools of textbooks prepared to date by the EDUSIDA project. Instead of the planned 10,000 textbooks, 90,000 are being printed and put into use nationwide.

By the end of 2006, the government intends to issue a decree requiring HIV/AIDS education as a cross-disciplinary subject in the curricula of primary and secondary schools.