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HIV/AIDS study targets 14-year olds
Catherine Strawn. 19 April 2004. Pretoria News. Republished courtesy of Independent Online (Pty) Ltd.
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Thousands of Grade 8 pupils in Cape Town are being encouraged to delay their first act of sexual intercourse and to use condoms when they become sexually active.
This is part of an innovative HIV/AIDS education project run jointly by the University of Cape Town and the University of Tanzania. The project is being conducted in selected schools to test its effectiveness.
Using attractive workbooks and activities appropriate for pupils' cultures, ages and levels of development, researchers hope to change the attitudes and behaviour of adolescents.
Satz, the programme's name, stands for South Africa and Tanzania. The study is targeting high school pupils early on, helping to give them skills for life and values that will delay their becoming sexually active and encourage them to use protection when they do.
Shahieda Jansen, a clinical psychologist who is the research officer responsible for the development and implementation of the curriculum, said she and her colleagues had worked since February last year to create a programme appropriate for the pupils in the participating Cape Town schools.
"Cape Town is a diverse region. We have to cater to the different needs."
Using random statistical methods of selection, the team of researchers selected schools with varying demographics and resources, all in urban areas.
The study includes 13 implementation schools and 13 control schools.
Preliminary research showed that the majority of 14-year-old students were not sexually active, and a large part of the programme is promoting behaviour already happening among the pupils: abstinence. "We wanted to target them before they're sexually active," said Jansen.
Despite being compatible with the Department of Education's life orientation requirements, Satz differs from other HIV/AIDS and sexuality programmes in that the researchers worked with teachers and pupils in its development.
Using focus groups, the researchers received input on the course materials before the project was implemented.
Extensive teacher training also sets the approach apart from existing programmes, Jansen said. Rather than having pupils read from a textbook, the teachers are trained to engage the pupils while being sensitive about the subject. "This programme is dependent on teachers being trained," she said.
In addition to increased teacher participation, Jansen said that parental involvement was also important. Pupils were required to ask their parents about values and how they felt about topics in the course.
Activities and questionnaires that engage students are found in the pupil workbooks. What they write in its pages do not have to be shared with their teacher or anyone else. Jansen said this may help students feel more comfortable about the sensitive subjects discussed in the class.
Satz tried to go beyond teaching about the virus to try to change the root of the problem, said Jansen. Participating teachers had commented that they were "HIV exhausted".
"We don't come with an exclusive HIV message," said Jansen. "You can't get people to change their sexual behaviour unless you give them the skills to do that."
The Satz course will be evaluated based on pupil questionnaires. The researchers' evaluations are likely to begin in August, said Jansen.
Tafelsig Secondary School was one of the schools randomly selected to participate in the study, and the staff decided that "it would definitely benefit our school," said William Swartz, the school's history and guidance teacher, who teaches the Satz course.
Swartz said that the grade 8 pupils struggle a bit with the language used in the course materials, but he saw the programme as an effective approach to teaching about this sensitive topic: "I've gotten the feeling that it will make a difference, even if we can convince a few learners," he said.
Part of the reason he believes Satz is effective is because it involves parents, he said. Swartz said that parents must play a bigger role and sit down and discuss this topic with their children. The programme forces this to happen, he said.
Some people had said grade 8 pupils were too young to learn about sexuality and HIV/AIDS, Swartz said, but he disagreed.
"We need to start at a young age. They're not too young. It depends on how the facilitators handle it."
In addition to secondary schools in Cape Town, others in Polokwane and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania are participating.
For more information about the study, visit http://www.uib.no/psyfa/hemil/satz/index.htm.
A survey by the Reproductive Health Research Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand and loveLife shows that HIV among South African youth may be stablising.
It found that among 15-24 year old South Africans the HIV prevalence was 10,2 percent. Prevalence was higher among women (15,5 percent) than among men (4,8 percent). HIV was also higher in the 20-24 year old age group (16,5 percent) compared to the 15-19 year olds (2,5 percent). |
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