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"HIV/AIDS keeps teachers from their classrooms"
Liz Clarke and Angela Bolowana. 09 June 2005. The Mercury. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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A "blistering" report highlighting the disease burden facing education in South Africa shows that between 10 000 and 23 000 teachers now require treatment for HIV/AIDS to save their lives.
The highest prevalence of the disease was recorded in KwaZulu-Natal, where 21,8 percent were infected, followed by Mpumalanga (19 percent) and the Eastern Cape 13,8 percent. The least affected was the Western Cape, where 1,1 percent of teachers were infected. Gauteng's figures was 6,4 percent.
Speaking at the plenary session of the second South African AIDS conference at the ICC in Durban on Wednesday, Dr Olive Shisana, leader of the Education for Life project at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and founder of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Health research programme, said that it was not "simply a suggestion" but a matter "of urgency that infected teachers with low CD4 immune cell counts are given treatment".
Highlighting the major concerns for the future of education, Shisana said that teachers who became ill and died of HIV/AIDS-related diseases were depriving pupils of the sector's most experienced teachers, including those who taught science and mathematics.
The call for immediate treatment comes in the wake of another report that showed how South African pupils in impoverished areas where HIV/AIDS was rife were performing well below international norms.
In the case of HIV/AIDS, it meant increased absenteeism by teachers, who were often too ill to manage a large classroom.
The 2004 report showed that the general profile of the 17 088 South African teachers sampled in the study were women older than 34 and married, half of whom had degrees. It was found that those who taught additional languages had a 23,6 percent HIV-prevalence, while those who taught economics, maths, science, social science and arts and culture had a prevalence rate of about 13 percent. The lowest rate was among technology teachers.
In 2004, without the provision of anti-retrovirals, about 4 000 teachers died of HIV/AIDS-related complications, and 80 percent of these deaths were people younger than 45.
In urging treatment for teachers, the report states that if there was 90 percent anti-retroviral provision, more than 50 percent of lives could be saved by 2010.
There seems to be inadequate focus on HIV/AIDS by the education department, despite its prevalence among teachers, said unions.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) estimated that in KwaZulu-Natal alone, the department of education would need to employ a minimum of 3 800 substitute teachers next year to fill the gap created by teachers who booked off for sick leave.
Union official Sipho Nkosi said the department had to employ so many substitute teachers because "many teachers were falling ill due to the negative effects of HIV/AID".
In her budget speech, Ina Cronje, KZN minister of education, said the department would employ 2 000 substitute teachers this year, a sharp increase from 320 last year.
But at the media briefing afterwards, Cronje said that nothing new would be done for teachers who were affected or infected with HIV/AIDS. Old policies would continue to tackle that problem, she said.
At the National Consultative Conference on Education, held in Durban recently, Naledi Pandor, national minister of education, said the department had not embarked on any programmes targeted at addressing the report findings on the state of HIV/AIDS among teachers. However, she said something had to be done because it was teachers who had to pass on information to pupils.
Anthony Pierce, spokesperson for the Association of Professional Educators in KwaZulu-Natal, said: "If you have to commission people to deal with something as important and urgent as HIV/AIDS, you can't leave it at that. There is a call on the Education Labour Relations Council to ensure that something happens as a result of the study."
Spokesperson for the National Teachers' Union, Eliam Biyela, said that since the report the department would soon be supplying unions with staff to run HIV/AIDS campaigns, and that the Medical Research Council would soon help with the treatment of infected teachers. |
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