There has been much discussion and debate through various media platforms in recent weeks about the provision of HIV testing in schools. Some of the discussion has been based on misinformation and this has created concern about the implementation of the campaign.
Since July 2010, the Department of Basic Education in partnership with the Departments of Health, Social Development and Public Service and Administration, together with teacher unions, development partners and civil society organisations have been engaged in a national task team to develop a strategy and implementation plan for the roll out of the School HIV Counselling and Testing Campaign. As previously reported, the Ministers of Health and Basic Education will make an announcement about the implementation plan in due course.
The schools’ leg of the campaign is based on the National HCT campaign that aims to ensure mass mobilisation of South African society around HIV and AIDS because of the scale of the epidemic in South Africa. The campaign will target educators and school support staff, learners in secondary schools as well as parents, care-givers and the general public. Schools have been identified as a site for testing because (1) it is a workplace to a significant number of educators and school support staff and (2) the majority of young people who can be found in schools are likely to be HIV negative. HIV testing will offer an entry point for prevention messaging for young people to maintain their HIV negative status, and for access to treatment, care and support for those who are HIV positive. There is now global recognition that the turn-around strategy for HIV and AIDS rests in prevention.
The department and the national task team has adopted a considered and cautious approach towards the school HCT campaign because of the sensitivity associated with the testing of young people and the potential unintended consequences. The task team has recommended that testing begin in secondary schools (not primary schools as stated in the Sowetan article (10 February 2011) for learners, educators, school support staff and parents. This whole school approach has been adopted to ensure the provision of ongoing psychosocial support to learners in and outside of the classroom and in recognition of the fact that while the first signs of decline in HIV incidence have been reported amongst young people, HIV prevalence is increasing amongst adults. HIV testing will be voluntary.
The campaign will be phased into selected districts where the necessary infrastructure is available to adequately inform and discuss the campaign with the school community, address issues such as stigma and discrimination and ensure the provision of ongoing psychosocial support pre and post testing.
It must be emphasised that as in the national HCT campaign, the focus of the campaign is not only on HIV testing, but in offering screening for a range of chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. The health screening package for learners has been adapted for their specific health needs to include a strong focus on HIV prevention messages and screening for vision, hearing, body mass index, tuberculosis and, those that so consent, for HIV. The campaign is intended to strengthen and expand school health services.
The campaign has adopted a rights-based approach and will take all necessary steps to guarantee young people’s right to privacy and confidentiality. However, due concern must also be given to ensure that learners have the necessary support to cope with the results of the test in and outside of the classroom. The task team has therefore recommended that parental consent and learner assent be sought for learners to participate in the campaign. In addition, parents will be invited to accompany their children on the day of testing.
Contrary to the article published in the Sowetan on 10 February 2011 that the Department is seeking to ‘impose compulsory HIV testing of pupils at primary and secondary schools’, the task team has always maintained that participation will be voluntary and that learners may undergo screening for all or some of the above health assessment areas. In other words, learners may choose to be screened for their vision or hearing but not undergo an HIV test.
The Department of Basic Education is in the process of crafting a new strategy on HIV and AIDS that will provide an integrated and comprehensive response to the epidemic within the schooling system. The strategy recognises that the epidemic in South Africa is largely driven by structural drivers and that an individual, victim-blaming approach will not solve the problem. The statement in the Sowetan on 10 February 2011 that the department’s approach ‘seeks to create a fallacious and falsified impression that pupils are the primary contributors of HIV infections at schools’ is therefore uninformed and simply untrue. In fact, the school HCT Campaign is positioned as one strategy within a comprehensive approach towards HIV prevention and mitigation including the life skills programme, peer education programmes and care and support for teaching and learning programme.
HIV and AIDS is one of the biggest developmental challenges faced by South African society, requiring a substantive and sustained response from every sector of society. The school being a microcosm of local communities must play its role in preventing and mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS.
Issued by
Granville Whittle
Cell: 072 148 9575
Source: Department of Basic Education
