[cr-india] Conference offers solutions to impact of AIDS on education

[George Lessard (s)]

> Begin forwarded message:

From: IRIN <IRIN at irinnews.org>
Date: Mon Oct 6, 2003  12:23:05  PM Canada/Eastern
  Subject: SWAZILAND: Conference offers solutions to impact of AIDS on 
education

SWAZILAND: Conference offers solutions to impact of AIDS on education

MBABANE, 6 October (IRIN) - At the end of a week-long conference in 
Swaziland, African educators and US representatives called for further 
cooperation between the private and public sectors in the fight against 
HIV/AIDS in schools.

"We are analysing what works, and stressing innovation and proven 
successes over formulae," Behuel Ndlovu, director of secondary schools 
for the Swaziland Ministry of Education, told IRIN.

"For AIDS mitigation to be achieved through improved education in 
Africa, partnerships have to be forged between Western and African 
nations, between the public and private sectors, and between civil 
society and governments," said Colette Cowey, an expert on global 
development issues.

Bringing corporate sponsors and NGOs into schools to improve 
infrastructure, bursaries, curriculum and "life skills" teaching (which 
includes sex education and AIDS awareness) was unheard of a decade ago, 
when all aspects of African education were managed by national 
education ministries or missionary schools.

"Non-traditional partners like corporations now contribute funding, 
skills, services and expertise, technology and intellectual property. A 
synergy results from these joint efforts," said Cowey.

As an example, Isreal Simelane, chief inspector of primary schools in 
Swaziland, mentioned the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF), 
whose pilot feeding scheme in the drought-stricken eastern part of 
Swaziland was the only sustained nutrition that school children in the 
area had been receiving.

"Empty classrooms are filling up again. Kids who were too weak to come 
to school or stay awake during class are alert and studying again," 
Simelane said. Not all problems have ready solutions, and this week's 
conference was devoted to brainstorming to find ways of surmounting 
seemingly intractable challenges.

Swaziland's Under-Secretary of Education, Doctor Simelane, gave an 
example: "We have a problem of children being short-changed by the 
absence of teachers with AIDS. We urge these teachers to apply for sick 
leave, but they refuse. They fear we'll fire them [but] they cannot be 
dismissed unless they are absent some weeks. So, they show up from time 
to time to put in an appearance, and then leave the class without a 
teacher. The headmaster begs us for a replacement, but replacements can 
only come when there is an official vacancy."

One solution offered by delegates was to train volunteers from the 
community who could share teaching assignments.

"One person may have English skills, another might know science. In an 
emergency like AIDS, which is devastating the ranks of teachers, 
creative solutions with community involvement is essential," said 
Dominic Machel, a delegate from Mozambique's Inhambane province.

"Community involvement to improve local education is essential," said 
Doctor Simelane. "Our experience is that when you create a culture of 
dependence - when people sit back and do nothing, while government or 
donors handle everything - education suffers. There is a correlation 
between the degree of community involvement and quality of schools."

Seth Ong'oti, a Kenyan project manager with the Aga Khan Foundation 
(AKF), specialises in improving the standard of education in Muslim 
Schools in East Africa through community development.

"We start with a request from a community for support. We have to 
develop a quality, sustainable programme that targets disadvantaged 
children, that is acceptable to the community. We come up with what we 
call the African Cooking Pot: teacher training, the physical building 
structure to make a good learning environment, and community 
mobilisation," Ong'oti said.

Grassroots support was achieved by seeking the endorsement of Muslim 
elders and religious leaders, who approved the project and then passed 
the information on to their followers.

The conference was sponsored by the United States Agency for 
International Development (USAID), which is making thousands of 
scholarships available to young African scholars, mainly girls.

The former vice-chancellor of the University of Swaziland, Dr. Lydia 
Makhubu, challenged some assumptions: "In Swaziland, girls are going to 
school at a rate of fifty-fifty with boys, and sometimes at a higher 
percentage. It's not a matter of getting them into the classroom - it's 
what they do, or rather, what they don't do, while there," she said.

Makhubu stressed the need for introducing girls to the sciences, maths 
and technology, and making them computer literate - disciplines vital 
to the modern world, but which tend to be shunned by girls, she said.

Mary Khanya, Swaziland's Ambassador to the United States, told IRIN: 
"We are interested less in theory than how the intent of programmes is 
achieving results on the ground. At Emncozini (in north central 
Swaziland), we opened the first of what will be several Strategy 
Education Centres, which caters to girls who have dropped out of other 
schools due to pregnancy or other reasons. There are computer classes 
offered that have created so much interest that ... girls from other 
schools [in the area] come to learn."

Two Swazi girls' high schools have established Internet links with 
sister schools in the United States. Students converse via chat rooms 
and e-mail.

"Girls are really free to talk about their sexual development with 
their American counterparts. They feel less constrained than talking to 
a Swazi, because we are more circumspect about our bodies. This leads 
to awareness about their bodies, and is important in the understanding 
of HIV/AIDS," Khanya said.

"We acknowledge that it is to the economic and health advantage of the 
world to move Africa forward. What happens in Africa will impact 
everyone," said Gloria Blackwell, Director of African Education 
Programmes for the Institute of International Education in Washington, 
DC.

Getting potential corporate partners interested in the lives of African 
children requires ever more sophisticated marketing, conference 
delegates noted. In Zambia, USAID produced a 13-minute video of the 
stories of Zambian street children, and their transformation through 
education, told from the child's point of view.

"The empathy this created - going into the slums and seeing how these 
children endure, when really it takes so little financial investment to 
change their lives - had an energising effect on the partners," said 
conference convener Dr. Sarah Moten of the Africa Bureau of USAID.

Innovations based on "real life" experiences, rather than theory, are 
increasingly shaping education policy, delegates said.	


[ENDS]

IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA at irin.org.za

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN at ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by 
commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
2003

To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:
http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions/subslogin.asp



U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)