Case study- south Africa
HIV and sex education exist in schools as part as the 'Wider Life Orientation curriculum' which started in 2002. According to a comparative risk assessment, in South Africa the biggest factor contributing to the amount of people with HIV is unsafe sex.
Although there is education, due to the lack of training of teachers and the unwillingness of teachers, the quality of HIV/AIDS education provided for the population is very bad. Training is hindered due to that these program's training usually take place outside of school hours. The shortage of trained teachers can result in just one instructor in the whole school being able to teach those classes; so, school management would be resistant on whether that will be taught.
In surveys, teachers report that they feel very uncomfortable in teaching a curriculum that contradict to their own values, their religion and beliefs. Other problems include that teachers feel like the things taught in these courses can be disadvantages to home life of students, and teachers feeling that poor role models at home did not help reinforce HIV prevention messages received in school.
South Africa also has an extremely high dropout rate, which also has a lot to do with the effectiveness in the education of HIV and sex. This could mean that is is more necessary to direct prevention programs toward younger kids in school as more of them will be in education and before most are sexually active.
Although there is education, due to the lack of training of teachers and the unwillingness of teachers, the quality of HIV/AIDS education provided for the population is very bad. Training is hindered due to that these program's training usually take place outside of school hours. The shortage of trained teachers can result in just one instructor in the whole school being able to teach those classes; so, school management would be resistant on whether that will be taught.
In surveys, teachers report that they feel very uncomfortable in teaching a curriculum that contradict to their own values, their religion and beliefs. Other problems include that teachers feel like the things taught in these courses can be disadvantages to home life of students, and teachers feeling that poor role models at home did not help reinforce HIV prevention messages received in school.
South Africa also has an extremely high dropout rate, which also has a lot to do with the effectiveness in the education of HIV and sex. This could mean that is is more necessary to direct prevention programs toward younger kids in school as more of them will be in education and before most are sexually active.