The influence of peer education on the level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS amongst grade ten learners in an Eastern Cape high school

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A peer education programme was implemented during 2005 in high schools in the Mdantsane area inthe Eastern Cape as a strategy to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS among school going learners. Thisresearch paper looks at whether the use of peer education as opposed to the traditional teachermethod is effective in giving correct facts and whether or not it increases the level of knowledge ofHIV/AIDS and related health issues. Data about the effectiveness of the programme was collectedthrough questionnaires, using a two group between participant research design and a sample of 100learners (i.e. 50 learners from each group). Two groups of participants, those taught by peereducators and those taught by teachers at Masixole High School were given questionnaires to answerand the responses were analysed using the SPSS (version 13) package. Results showed that thegroup that received peer education performed better than the one that did not receive peer education.A limitation of the study is the small sample size, which creates a problem when the results aregeneralized to a wider population. Also, the performance of the peer education group cannot besolely attributed to peer education, as there might be other extraneous variables, which might havecontributed to the group's performance.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University