The Impact of HIV and AIDS on Education

1
The Impact of HIV and AIDS on Education

• MTT 2004 Annual Winter School
• Mitigating the Impacts of HIV/AIDS on Education
  Systems
• Durban, 9th August 2004
• M. J. Kelly, Lusaka, Zambia
• mjkelly_at_zamnet.zm

2
Introduction

• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
  about things that matter (Martin Luther King)
• HIV/AIDS and its impacts on people and systems
  (including education systems) are things that
  matter to each one of us
• For so long as the epidemic lasts, let us never
  be silent about these things

3
HIV/AIDS a New Concern for Education

• Not part of educational thinking at Jomtien
  (1990)
• Awareness developed late in the 1990s
• More focussed attention since 2000
• Initial MOE concerns were with using the
  curriculum for prevention and hence incorporating
  HIV/AIDS issuesa continuing major concern and at
  the heart of UNESCOs IBE approach
• Recognition developed later that the epidemic has
  major impacts on education systems and hence the
  need for a systemic responsethis now receives
  increasing attention and is at the heart of the
  MTT and IIEP (UNESCO) approach

4
The Two-way Interaction between Education and
HIV/AIDS

• HIV/AIDS has a strong grip
• Education has the power to help break that grip
• Education can be a powerful forceperhaps the
  most powerful force of allin combating the
  spread of HIV/AIDS (World Education Forum,
  Dakar, 2000)
• But just as education can contribute to weakening
  the grip of HIV/AIDS, so also the epidemic can
  weaken an education systems ability to function

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The Impacts of HIV and AIDS on Education

• HIV/AIDS affects
• The context within which education systems
  function
• The ability of education systems to function
• What we want from our systems of education

6
Impacts on the Context of Education

• HIV and AIDS are making radical changes in the
  environment in which education systems function
• Major HIV/AIDS-related changes continue to occur
  in the
• Economic situation
• Social situation
• Cultural situation
• Health situation

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HIV/AIDS-related Changes in the Economic Context
for Education
National levelslower economic growth Industrial
levelhigher costs, smaller markets, reduced
profitability, constrained employment
opportunities Household levelhigher
expenditures, reduced incomes, increased
poverty All levelsdiversion of resources to
health costs reduced investments/savings loss
of skills fewer economically productive young
and middle-aged individuals to support the
elderly and the young Food Securityreduced
production, inadequate transmission of
agricultural skills, inability to use resources
productively, chronic food insecurity
8
Other Impacts of HIV/AIDS on the Context for
Education

• Social Impactsstigma, discrimination, orphans,
  vulnerable children, supporting affected
  families, supporting grandparents and the
  elderly, migration
• Cultural Impactschanges in formal and informal
  traditions and customs initiation, funeral
  patterns, wife inheritance, taboo topics, family
  cohesion, role of extended family
• Health Impactspervasive climate of poor health
  use of hospital beds shortage of nurses and
  health care personnel increased health spending
  at national and household levels drugs and ARVs

9
The Impacts of HIV and AIDS on Education

• HIV/AIDS affects
• The context within which education systems
  function
• The ability of education systems to function
• What we want from our systems of education

10
HIV/AIDS can Destroy Systems

• As individuals concerned with mitigating the
  impact of HIV/AIDS on the education sector, our
  concern is with education as a system
• What HIV/AIDS does to the human body, it also
  does to institutions. It undermines those
  institutions that protect us (Peter Piot,
  Executive Director UNAIDS)
• Most of the systemic inadequacies we are
  currently experiencing with HIV/AIDS existed long
  before the disease came knocking on our door.
  HIV/AIDS did not create these systemic deficits
  it has simply exacerbated them and is creating
  new ones as new infections accumulate" (Dr Ernest
  Darkoh, Botswana's ARV programme manager)

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What HIV/AIDS Does to the Human Body, it also
Does to Institutions

• HIV Effects on the Body
• HIV in human body
• Break down of immune system
• A growing inability to shake off common illnesses
  and to deal with new ones
• Reduced productivity
• Death ???

• HIV Effects on a System
• HIV in education
• Progressive weakening of system
• A growing inability to deal with existing
  management problems and to deal with new ones
• Reduced productivity
• Danger of collapse ???

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Impacts of HIV/AIDS on Education Systems

• HIV/AIDS affects the numbers who want to be
  educated, that is, it affects the demand for
  education
• HIV/AIDS affects the ability to supply education
  of good quality
• HIV/AIDS affects the costs of education and the
  availability of financial resources
• HIV/AIDS affects the management of education
• HIV/AIDS affects the quality of education
• HIV/AIDS affects the process of education

13
Impact on the Demand for Education

• Many of our countries are still struggling to
  provide basic education for all (EFA)
• HIV/AIDS makes this task easier because fewer
  children will be born and many who are born will
  die young because of mother-to-child transmission
• On the other hand, HIV/AIDS makes the achievement
  of EFA goals more difficult because children from
  affected families may not be able to make use of
  available opportunities for schooling
• Demand is also affected, in various ways, by the
  enormous and growing problem of orphans

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Orphans (under age 18) Number and as of all
Children, 2003
Number Number
Botswana 160,000 10 Swaziland 100,000 16
Ethiopia 3,900,000 11 Tanzania 2,500,000 14
Kenya 1,700,000 11 Uganda 2,000,000 14
Malawi 1,000,000 14 Zambia 1,100,000 19
Namibia 120,000 12 Zimbabwe 1,300,000 19
S. Africa 2,200,000 11
Source Children on the Brink 2004
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Some HIV/AIDS-related Demand Questions

• What is the likely future size of the school-age
  population?
• Are all children entering school? Are they
  entering at the correct age? Do many enter at
  older ages?
• Are all children completing school? Is dropout
  increasing? What is the drop-out pattern for
  girls? For orphans? Do children who have left
  school re-enter again at an older age?
• Is there much movement of children from one
  school to another?
• What are the reasons for any of these
  occurrences? Why do some children not enter
  school? Why do some drop out? Are there signs of
  families being broken up or migrating in search
  of employment?

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Answering our Questions

• Do we have the answers to the questions on the
  previous slide?
• What information systems should we establish so
  that we could give reasonably accurate answers to
  these and similar questions?
• Note that better answers to questions like these
  would make us better managers of education, even
  if there was no HIV/AIDS

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Impacts on Supply

• HIV/AIDS has negative impacts on the ability to
  provide education because
• Teachers and other educators are dying in
  increasing numbers and at comparatively young
  agesand it may take some time before they can be
  replaced
• Teachers who are ill are often unavoidably
  absentand there is nobody to take over the
  affected classes
• Family and community funerals are leading to
  increases in absenteeism
• Rural posting of teachers is becoming more
  difficult because teachers who are ill want to
  be near health facilities
• Teachers take up employment in other areas where
  AIDS has created vacancies

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Impact on the Costs of Education

• HIV/AIDS is resulting in
• New costs for replacement teachers and additional
  management personnel
• Payments of salaries to absent or sick personnel
• The lost training costs of teachers and students
  who die young
• Premature payment of terminal benefits
• The costs of ensuring OVC access
• The costs of introducing preventive education
  (new materials and teacher training)
• Additional management costs (HIV/AIDS units,
  AIDS-in-the-Workplace training , etc)

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The Impact on Management

• Every education system has its inadequacies and
  management problems
• HIV/AIDS makes these worse
• It also adds new problems
• Some areas of particular need
• Human resource planning and management in an
  environment of uncertainty
• Resource mobilization and financial
  flowsspending money efficiently and effectively
• HIV/AIDS workplace issues
• An HIV/AIDS-informed educational management
  information system
• Harmonising donor and partner involvement

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Impact on the Quality of Education

• Educations major outcomeslearning achievement
  and personal formationare threatened by
• frequent teacher absenteeism, with classes being
  left for days (even weeks) to learn on their own
• learners frequently absent or dropping out
• shortages of teachers in specialised areas such
  as mathematics or science
• concern for the sick at home interfering with
  ability to concentrate on teaching and learning
• repeated occasions for mourning in schools,
  families and communities
• unhappiness and fear of stigmatisation and
  ostracism on the part of both teachers and
  students who have been affected by HIV/AIDS

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HIV/AIDS Impacts on the Process of Education

• In school and college settings, HIV/AIDS affects
• Social interactions (because of illness, stigma,
  orphanhood, frequent deaths, etc)
• Curriculum content (because of need to develop
  preventive education)
• Development and dissemination of materials
• Training of tutors (trainers) teachers
• Monitoring and evaluation

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The Impacts of HIV and AIDS on Education

• HIAIDS affects
• The context within which education systems
  function
• The ability of education systems to function
• What we want from our systems of education

23
HIV/AIDS Presents a Twofold Challenge and
Opportunity

• The epidemic presents educators with the
  challenge and the opportunity to
• improve and reform existing systems
• transform education

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Opportunity in the Crisis of HIV/AIDS

• The impacts of HIV/AIDS, though calamitous, do
  not necessarily lead into a developmental
  cul-de-sac
• The epidemic presents a challenging opportunity
  for growth, reform and development
• Vigorous community responses are revitalising
  society
• In education, AIDS has created a greater sense of
  urgency in efforts to attain the
  Education-For-All (EFA) goals
• The epidemic is leading to greater concern to
  find ways for putting an end to gender
  discrimination, in education, as elsewhere
• The crisis presents an opportunity to re-think
  and re-design many of our approaches to these and
  similar issues
• --------

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Opportunities for Improvement and Reform

• A comprehensive education sector response to
  HIV/AIDS will embody opportunities for
  improvement and reform, in such areas as
• Greater involvement of the community
• More interactive student-centred learning
• Greater focus on skills-based learning
• Deeper and more effective partnerships
• Decentralisation in reality as well as in intent
• Harmonious and mutually beneficial relationships
  between MOEs and teachers
• Adoption of more streamlined procedures
• Information about the system and EMIS

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Transforming Education

• Education has long been a prisoner of its past,
  with much stress on the academic
• HIV/AIDS calls for a critical re-thinking of this
  and all aspects of educational provision
• In education, as elsewhere in a world with AIDS,
  it can no longer be business as usual
• It can no longer be education as usual
• HIV/AIDS challenges educators to work out the
  kind of education that will prepare children and
  youth to live responsibly, productively,
  creatively, hopefully and happily in the world
  they facea world that differs very radically
  from the world that existed 30 years ago when
  most of our education systems were designed

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The Four Pillars of Learning

• One possible paradigm for a transformed model of
  education is based on four principles
• Learn to know communicate comprehensive and
  accurate information
• Learn to do foster the acquisition of
  skillslearning, manual, psycho-social, health,
  nutrition and other skills that will support one
  as a person throughout life
• Learn to live together promote an accepting,
  caring, rights-based, non-judgmental approach to
  every person
• Learn to be strive for the development of
  life-affirming attitudes, skills and value
  systems that will help learners be creatively
  responsible for themselves and their decisions

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Practical Exercise, 1

• Identify ways in which HIV/AIDS has affected
• The economic context within which the education
  system functions in your country
• The social context for education
• The cultural context for education
• The health context for education

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Practical Exercise, 2

• Identify ways in which HIV/AIDS has affected the
  ability of the education system in your country
  to function in terms of
• The demand for education
• The supply of education
• The costs of education
• The quality of education
• Is HIV/AIDS having any impacts on education that
  are in danger of being overlooked?
• Does HIV/AIDS have any positive impacts on
  education or are the impacts all negative?

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Practical Exercise, 3

• Identify ways in which HIV/AIDS has affected the
  way the education ministry in your country thinks
  about the kind of education it wishes to offer in
  terms of
• Curriculum changes
• Skills-based education
• Radical re-thinking of the systems and content of
  education
• Greater and more active involvement of the
  community in the management and provision of
  educational services
• Is there anything more that needs to be done?