An investigation into the role of parents in HIV and AIDS education offered in schools inthe Directorate of Education, Oshana Region - Northern Namibia

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: HIV/AIDS education has been accepted with mixed feelings mainly because of its close association with human sexuality. Notwithstanding the controversy, HIV/AIDS educa-tion is being taught in schools in Namibia for more than ten years. Programmes such as „My Future is My Choice‟ programme, Window of Hope programme and the Life Skills subject all have one objective – to equip learners with information and skills to enable them to make decisions in the era of HIV/AIDS.One of the most profound themes to emerge in recent years is that HIV/AIDS is more than a physical ailment. Its rate of transmission (or infection) is determined by the social context. The notion that once people have been informed about HIV prevention, they would use this information to make decisions that would protect them from infection has been proven a fallacy. It is now understood that the social context of people must be con-sidered when they are being informed about HIV/AIDS to enable them to navigate through unfavorable and outdated cultural practices that accelerate the spread of the vi-rus.Learners come from different social contexts and this needs to be considered when edu-cating them about HIV/AIDS. This research study investigated the role of parents in HIV/AIDS education offered in schools during 2010, in Oshana Education Directorate. Fourteen teachers from ten schools and twenty parents took part in the study. An imple-mentation evaluation research design was chosen to investigate the roles parents played in complementing and supporting HIV/AIDS educationFindings of this study indicated that only 40% of the schools involved parents in the HIV/AIDS programmes. This was confirmed when it also emerged that only 70% of par-ents who took part in the study were aware of their children‟s involvement in HIV/AIDS programmes. Thirty percent were not aware that their children participated in HIV/AIDS programmes at school. The study also revealed that all parents who took part in the study are in agreement with the school teaching learners about HIV/AIDS. However, only fifty percent (50%) of the parents in the study indicated that they were involved in the school‟s HIV/AIDS programmes.One of the most notable roles mentioned by parents were that they emphasized at home on various topics that they were aware were being taught at schools, attending prize giv-ing ceremonies at schools to witness the giving of awards after learners completed the programmes; some mentioned that they were also invited to give presentations on the topic of HIV/AIDS. Seventy percent of parents mentioned that they were asked permis-sion for their children to take part in the programmes and some parents were specifically requested to talk to learners at home about HIV/AIDS.Overall the research discovered that the practice of involving parents in HIV/AIDS edu-cation was not being practiced by all schools. Sixty percent of the schools did not in-volve parents in the HIV/AIDS programmes.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University