The
Implicit Policy of Silence and Denial
Silence
and denial seem to be basic and protective human responses to situations that
are excessively stressful. In the words of the English poet T. S. Elliot,
“humankind cannot bear too much reality”. Instead it prefers to ignore a
situation, to question whether it is as bad as is made out, to find
alternative ways of accounting for potential dangers and threats.
This
reluctance to confront and accept reality has characterised much of the public
and private response to HIV/AIDS over the past two decades. It has also made a
strong contribution to the spread of the epidemic: “a country in which
denial flourishes is a country whose citizens are vulnerable to the silent
spread of HIV” (UNAIDS 2000: 38).
Until
the second half of the 1990s, the public sector in almost all countries, and
more specifically the education sector, worked behind a wall of silence that
effectively denied the threat and challenge posed by HIV/AIDS. Towards the end
of 1993, the International Institute for Educational Planning in Paris held a
workshop for educational planners and policy-makers on how HIV/AIDS was likely
to impact on the education sector, and subsequently disseminated a
comprehensive report on the issue. But almost six years had to pass before
education ministries began to take on board the contents of that seminal work
(Schaeffer 1994). During those lost years, the AIDS situation in general, and
in the education sector in particular, grew steadily worse.
In
effect, the policy response from the education sector during most of the first
two decades of HIV/AIDS was one of silence and denial. It did not really face
up to the fact that the epidemic could undermine its operations and prevent
its proper functioning.
The
Policy Focus on Responding to HIV/AIDS through the Curriculum
When
it did start moving on HIV/AIDS, the education sector found that it was
dealing with something that was completely beyond its experience. Hence, it
responded in very typical fashion by concentrating on teaching, the area with
which it was most familiar. By and large, ministries of education see teaching
as their core function. The majority of their employees are teachers, a large
proportion of their administrative staff are former teachers, and their work
focuses on provision of teaching at all levels. In keeping with this
orientation, the principal response of education sectors to HIV/AIDS has been
a teaching response. Education ministries have sought to confront the epidemic
by incorporating HIV/AIDS (and sometimes sexuality) material into the
curriculum and have concentrated, for the greater part, on the use of teaching
programmes as a means of stemming the spread of the epidemic.
In
the course of 2000, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa
(ADEA) requested education ministries across the continent to “identify
experiences … that show promise and potential in providing clues and inputs
for policies, programmes and effective measures aimed at controlling and
alleviating the impact and damage that HIV/AIDS has on individuals, families
and schools”.
A
synthesis of country responses was presented at the ADEA biennial meeting held
in Arusha in October 2001. In relation to the development of HIV/AIDS policies
for the education sector, three features stand out:
1.
The fewness of the activities and responses
- At the time of the Arusha presentation, a total of thirty-three countries
had expressed interest in joining the initiative, but only fourteen of these
had progressed beyond the initial stages, while only six had produced draft
reports that could be incorporated in the synthesis (Akoulouze, Rugalema and
Khanye 2001).
2.
The dominance of the curriculum response
- Reported interventions related mostly to educational programmes, and were
focused exclusively on learners. At the same time, there was little
information on programmes to equip teachers to deliver the new curriculum in
which HIV/AIDS education was infused.
3.
The almost total absence of analysis on the systemic implications of
the epidemic and its relevance for educational planning -
Across the whole of Africa, only one country showed signs of adopting this
approach.
This
tendency for policy to focus on educational programmes, to the neglect of
institutional impacts, was given unwitting impetus by the World Education
Forum of April 2000. In its Dakar Framework for Action, the Forum agreed
to “implement as a matter of urgency education programmes and actions to
combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic” (UNESCO 2000: 44), but made no mention of the
need for education systems to adopt policies and procedures that would enable
them to cope with the impacts of the epidemic, so that they would be
strengthened to provide, inter alia, these very anti-AIDS programmes
and actions.
UNESCO
itself sees education resting on four pillars: learning to know, learning to
do, learning to live together, and learning to be (UNESCO 1996). Up to very
recently, the education sector policy response to HIV/AIDS has focused almost
entirely on developing the capacity of the learner in the first three of these
areas: better knowledge about the disease, skills that enhance the ability to
protect oneself against infection, and approaches that acknowledge the rights
and dignities of those infected or affected by the disease. By the same token,
it has underplayed the need to develop its own capacity in all four areas.
Thus the sector has not dedicated sufficient attention to:
-
enhancing
its knowledge and understanding of the impact of the disease on itself
and its institutions;
-
doing
something to ensure that HIV/AIDS remains central to its agenda, and in
particular taking steps to ensure that where prevalence rates are high,
schools continue to function and deliver educational services of
acceptable quality;
-
developing
comprehensive policies that demonstrate care and concern for educators
and learners who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, and that embody a
compassionate, humane and effective regulatory framework for dealing
with the disease and its impacts; and
-
recognising
itself as a sector that is living with HIV/AIDS and hence in need of
radical re-consideration of its policies, procedures and programmes.
This
growing concern for the effective functioning of education systems, especially
in countries where the HIV prevalence rates are high, has resulted in a number
of concrete developments. Some education ministries have established dedicated
HIV/AIDS units to coordinate, plan for and manage the national educational
response to the epidemic, while a number of them are working on the
development of strategic plans for a comprehensive education sector response
to HIV/AIDS. Almost all are giving attention to building their own capacity to
respond to the needs for information and to promote understanding of feasible
actions. Some countries, particularly in Southern Africa, have conducted
impact assessments. Stimulated by the Association of African Universities, the
Association of Commonwealth Universities, and the South African University
Vice-Chancellors’ Association, the university sector is beginning to build
HIV/AIDS into its policy framework, with some universities already including
HIV/AIDS in their programmes and establishing HIV/AIDS units or networks.
It
would appear, therefore, that education policy makers are finally coming to
recognise the need for comprehensive, policy-based action if they are to
prevent HIV/AIDS from destroying their systems, weakening demand and access,
reducing their potential to supply educational services, eroding quality,
increasing costs, and destroying the human resource base needed for the very
functioning of the system. What is needed now is for the sector to take
further steps in this direction, buttressing itself with a conducive policy,
planning and management framework that will strengthen its ability to protect
its core functions, get to grips with HIV/AIDS as a systemic issue, and
creatively manage its impacts so that it continues to offer high quality
educational services to all its clients.
Opportunity
in Crisis: Towards a Radical Re-evaluation of Educational Policy
But
beyond all this, the AIDS epidemic is challenging the education sector to take
one further step, to seize the opportunity presented by the HIV/AIDS crisis to
work towards more relevant educational provision. There is universal agreement
on the need for more education, better education and more relevant education.
Existing paradigms find it difficult to ensure this. But the crisis with which
HIV/AIDS confronts the sector is also a challenge to break out of the box, to
consider radically new approaches in the provision of educational services.
What is needed is a complete re-examination of education and its role in
fostering a deep and harmonious form of human development, with a view to
developing suggestions and recommendations that would serve as an agenda for
policy-makers and practitioners. With AIDS, it cannot be business as usual.
Education in a world with AIDS cannot be the same as education in an AIDS-free
world. There is still need for educational policy to come to terms with this.
References
Akouluze,
R., G. Rugalema, V. Khanye. 2001. Taking stock of promising approaches in
HIV/AIDS and education in Sub-Saharan Africa: What works, why and how. A
synthesis of country case studies. Paper presented at an ADEA Biennial
Meeting, Arusha, Tanzania, 7–11 October 2001.
Badcock-Walters,
P. 2001. HIV/AIDS impact on education in Africa. An analysis of
conferences, workshops, seminars, meetings and summits focusing on HIV/AIDS
impact on education in Africa, December 1999 to June 2001.
Paper presented at an ADEA Biennial Meeting, Arusha, Tanzania,
7–11 October 2001.
Schaeffer,
S. 1994. The impact of HIV/AIDS on education: A review of the literature
and experience. Background
paper presented at an IIEP Seminar, Paris, 8–10 December 1993. Paris:
International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP).
UNAIDS.
2000. Report on the Global HIV/AIDS epidemic, June 2000. Geneva: UNAIDS.
UNESCO.
1996. Learning: The treasure within. Report to UNESCO of the International
Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century (The Delors Report).
Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO.
2000. World Education Forum. Final Report. Paris: UNESCO.