Reduction of risk through prevention and '", awareness
~
Promotion of responsible
living
I Tackling macro structural
factors
Figure 1 : An interrelated, holistic response for HIV/AIDS prevention programmes
SECTION TWO: POLICY ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL HIV/AIDS SCHOOLS POLICY AND THE NATIONAL INTEGRATED PLAN'S L1FE- SKILLS AND HIV/AIDS EDUCATION PROGRAMME
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There has always been a disparity between policy ideals and policy implementation in the arena of HIV/AIDS. As a consequence of globalisation and neoliberal capitalism, we witness differences that exist between people across the globe with respect to wealth, gender, sexuality and culture.
Furthermore, intertwined with these global challenges are socio-economic, political and legal factors. Social inequality, social exclusion and lack of access to -proper health and social services are just a few of the contextual and structural influences known to fuel the transmission of HIV (Barnett and Whiteside 2002; Campbell 2003; Van Rensburg et al 2002; Sewpaul 1997, 2003, 2005a, 2005b). The previous chapter discusses responses to the epidemic both by the international community and nation states and how this has exacerbated a 3-fold crisis that we have witnessed in the world: it has widened the gap between the rich and poor in society, between the rich and poor nations and has pushed already-stigmatised groups to the margins of society. The HIV/AIDS pandemic must be seen against the context of globalisation, international politics, economics and social relations. It is in this arena that social policy decisions and curriculum changes are being proposed, debated and implemented from central government level. One way to engage with social policy is to describe and critically analyse policies and those institutions that make up social services, as the ultimate objective of all HIV/AIDS policies should be to strengthen central, provincial, local government and civil society responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
An Appraisal and Overview of the Policy Documents
In August 1999, the Ministry of Education released the National Policy on HIV/AIDS for learners and educators in public schools, and students and educators in further education and training institutions (Department of Education 1999). One key component included in the Policy is that of 'Education on HIV/AIDS' which stipulates that "a continuing life-skills and HIV/AIDS education
programme must be implemented at all schools for all learners, students, educators and other staff members (Department of Education 1999). The new education policy, Curriculum 2005 includes life-skills, sexuality and HIV/AIDS education as part of the eight learning areas that constitute the Life Orientation Programme. Furthermore, in November 1999 the National Inter-Ministerial Committee received funding from the European Union to the amount of R450 million over a three year period: R75 million in 2000/2001; R125 million in 2001/2002 and R250 million in 2002/2003 in order to put a plan in place for children infected and affected by the epidemic. On 2 December 1999 the National Ministerial Committee decided to form a Social Cluster with the Department of Education, Department of Health and Department of Social Development in order to develop an integrated strategy to address the epidemic and its effect among children and youth. The responsibility of the Department of Education according to the National Integrated Plan for children affected and infected with HIV/AIDS (Departments of Education, Health and Social Development 2000) is to implement the life-skills, sexuality and HIV/AIDS education programmes at schools in order to prevent new infections among the youth. Clearly then, life-skills and HIV/AIDS education implemented at schools is a tangible outcome of both the Policy and the NIP document. The NIP project is based on the premise that it "intends to augment current provincial activities and not replace current initiatives" (Departments of Education, Health and Social Development 2000:3). In other words, the NIP programme is meant to strengthen the implementation of the life-skills, sexuality and HIV/AIDS education programme which forms part of the Life Orientation Programme of Curriculum 2005.
Implementation of both the National Policy and the Life-skills and HIV/AIDS programme is a provincial responsibility.
The National HIV/AIDS Schools Policy (Department of Education 1999) focuses on three key areas: HIV/AIDS-related discrimination and stigma, maintaining a safe school environment and HIV/AIDS and sexuality education. Compulsory HIV testing of learners and educators is prohibited. Equally, no learner or educator is compelled to disclose his or her status to the school or employer.
Life-skills education that is implemented at schools is a tangible outcome of the Policy.
The National HIV/AIDS School Policy has good intentions to provide broad guidelines for the implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes in the school context and hopes to make a positive difference to learners, students and educators. The Policy is consistent with the National Education Policy Act, 1996 (No. 27 of 1996) the Constitution of South Africa and the Trisanso plan (Department of Education 2000a, 2000b, 2000c). The Policy starts with a preamble, which provides a context for understanding the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Two key points are made that have implications for implementation of the Policy within schools. Firstly, "it is imperative that each school must have a planned strategy to cope with the epidemic" (Department of Education 1999:4).
Secondly, it is envisaged that the primary responsibility for the implementation of the Policy is the School Governing Bodies. This is based on the assumption that governing bodies already have the skills and expertise to develop such an implementation plan. In the preliminary study conducted by Professor Sewpaul and myself, educators were of the opinion that this is an unrealistic responsibility for parents and school governing bodies as parents are rarely involved in developing HIV/AIDS implementation plans at schools (Sewpaul and Raniga 2005). It was therefore one of the objectives of this extended study to investigate the extent to which parents are involved in HIV/AIDS education at schools.
Upon close scrutiny of the Policy, it is evident that there is a contradictory statement made in the document. The Policy indicates (Department of Education 1999:2) that the Ministry of Education is committed to provide leadership to implement the HIV/AIDS Policy and that "this policy seeks to contribute towards promoting effective prevention and care within the context of the public education system" (Department of Education 1999:2). In point 2.11 of the Policy it is then stipulated that this national policy is intended as broad principles only and that the operational responsibility of the Policy lies with the school governing bodies of schools. Such contradictory policy goals imply a
shift of responsibility of government in the provision of key social services such as education, health, welfare and housing to the private sector and communities. Within a neoliberal, capitalist ideology this substantiates the non- interventionist role of government in the provision of social services. Writers such as Bond (2005), Sewpaul (2004, 2005a, 2005b), Desai (2002), have aptly criticised the GEAR policy as being an inconsistent economic strategy to promote growth and employment and that South Africa's problems cannot be effectively addressed by the kind of neo-liberal, free market policies to which the IMF and the World Bank adhere. Sewpaul and Raniga (2005) found that educators were of the view that this is another strategy of government to "pass the buck back to the schools".
The National School-based policy requires integration of life-skills education with sexuality and HIV/AIDS education into the school curriculum. Curriculum 2005, implementing Outcome Based Education (Department of Education 1997) includes life-skills, sexuality and HIV/AIDS as one of the eight learning areas of Life Orientation. Further scrutiny of both the National Policy and the NIP document reveal an important missing element: lack of a monitoring and evaluation system. This study is based on the premise that Provincial HIV/AIDS programmes as well as National policy should be monitored and evaluated on an on-going basis in order to render the effectiveness of implementation at 'grassroots' level truly effective.
The document advocates for a "district based approach" to be followed (Departments of Education, Health and Social Development 2000). This approach entails the mobilisation of community resources in order to address the epidemic at a mezzo level. The urgent need is to develop comprehensive intervention strategies to ensure that the rights of learners who are affected and infected with HIV/AIDS are protected. Unless the institutional (adequate resources and support) capacity in the school is strengthened to deal with and cope with the devastation of HIV/AIDS, the problems of learners will be treated in a vacuum. As Ife (1995, 2002) indicated that the limitation of the institutional- reformist perspective is that it locates the problem within the institutional structures of society. However, he adds that unless changes are made to the
structural forces of oppression, any social justice strategy will be limited. Taking into account this structural analysis, in Chapter Six of this thesis I argue that unless the present institutional capacity (human resources, regular training, proper district based support systems) is strengthened by the Department of Education, then the life-skills education programme targeted at youth within the formal education sector will be ineffective.
Additionally, the Policy recommends that each school should establish its own Health Advisory Committee that should consist of the parents of learners at the school, representatives of the learners and representatives from the health care professions. The committee will be responsible for "developing and promoting an implementation plan on HIV/AIDS and thus "advise the governing body on all health matters, including HIV/AIDS" (Department of Education 1999: 13). The findings from the preliminary study (Sewpaul and Raniga 2005) confirmed that the majority of the schools in the North of Durban (Phoenix) region experienced problems with the practical implementation of this Policy. Seventeen of the eighteen principals interviewed in the preliminary study indicated that they did not have a Health Advisory Committee in place. Research conducted by Khoza (2002), Taylor et al (2002) and the preliminary study conducted by Sewpaul and Raniga (2005) confirm that there is a lack of institutional capacity at school level to deal with the problem of HIV/AIDS. The findings illustrated in Chapter Five of this extended study confirm this.
The NIP document indicates that the Secondary School Life-skills and HIV/AIDS education programme was initiated in all provinces in 1999, with the training of 840 master trainers and 9 034 educators (2 educators from each secondary school). The National Integrated Plan document, of which Life-skills is but one component, acknowledges that the extent of the implementation of the Life skills programme and training of educators has been limited. A personal discussion held with the National Life skills Co-ordinator in KwaZulu- Natal on 24 April 2003 revealed that the Department of Education has experienced difficulty in monitoring, supporting and assisting the implementation of the programme. The views of officials involved in the co-ordination of the NIP programme confirmed (see Chapter Six) that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of
Education had not conducted an internal audit with regard to monitoring, supporting and assisting the implementation of the Programme at schools.
The document advocates for the use of the cascading model with regard to the training of educators from schools. The document supports the use of this training model for the following reasons: the scarcity of human and financial resources, the potential negative impact that large full- time training could have on the effective functioning of schools, and in view of the urgent need to reach learners quickly, a phased approach is envisaged. The preliminary study (Sewpaul and Raniga 2005) outlines the limitations of the use of this cascading model. This is documented in more detail in Chapter Six of this thesis.
The National HIV/AIDS School Policy (Department of Education 1999) and the NIP document (Departments of Education, Health and Social Development 2000) both emphasise the need to create an enabling environment in order to curb infection rates among young people. It is therefore vital that HIV/AIDS Policy and prevention programmes take cognisance of macro factors such as poverty, inequality and social exclusion and the profound effect that these factors have on people's lives in society. It is disappointing to note that both the NIP document and the National HIV/AIDS School Policy (Department of Education 1999) fail to take cognisance of such socio-structural factors that impact on the creation of an enabling environment to deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I discussed in Chapter One the dialectical approach embedded in the structural approach to practice (Mullaly 1993) and that there is an inter- systemic relationship between individual learners, the family context, the schools system and the broader socio-structural issues that impact on institutional capacity of schools to deal with the problem of HIV/AIDS. Through this study, I illustrate that schools and communities are deeply embedded in and influenced by the broader economic and gendered relations of the wider society in which they are located and that structural factors such as poverty and a lack of infrastructure and basic services (water and sanitation) profoundly impact the institutional capacity at the schools in their endeavours to operationalise the National Life-skills and HIV/AIDS School Policy.
Conclusion
This chapter began with an overview of the impact of HIV/AIDS and on HIV/AIDS prevention programmes for the youth. Here six core components were discussed as the basis for a holistic, structural response to youth and HIV/AIDS. These were: promoting meaningful and active participation in prevention programmes, the reduction of risk through prevention and awareness programmes, the promotion of responsible living, the reduction of vulnerability through macro structural factors such as socio-cultural and economic change, promoting gender equity and provision of treatment, care and support to youth affected and or infected by the disease.
Section two began with a review and appraisal of two key documents, which,.
were central for the purpose of this study; namely the National HIV/AIDS Schools Policy (Department of Education 1999) and the National Integrated Plan for affected and infected children of HIV/AIDS (2000). The discussion highlights that the Policy as well as the NIP document are in themselves flawed as both documents fail to take cognisance of the broader socio-structural factors that impact the school system.
The chapter that follows provides an overview of the research process, which was conducted using a triangulated research design. The three key phases within the triangulated research is described together with the sampling strategies and the methods of data collection in relation to the objectives of the study. The process of data analysis and issues relating to ethical considerations and limitations of the study are examined.