5.3 How are teachers trained for their role as HIV and AIDS educators?
5.3.1 Pre-service Teacher Education
As stated above, in Lesotho teachers are mainly trained at LCE and at NUL. The LCE operates from its two campuses, Maseru main campus and Thaba-Tseka satellite campus. The LCE is the main provider of basic pre-service teacher education mandated to train teachers for both primary and secondary schools. The minimum entry requirements into LCE are the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC) and or the Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education (LGCSE) with four credits and a pass in English for admission into Diploma in Education (secondary). COSC is an examination previously taken by Basotho students at the end of their high school education (Form E or Grade 12). Starting in 2014, the COSC is in the process of being phased out and being replaced by the LGCSE.
The LCE teacher education programme “is designed both for students without previous teaching experience who wish to teach in secondary and high schools and for those who have such experience but are unqualified or hold a qualification below the diploma level. This is a pre-service full-time program of three years’ duration” (Lesotho College of Education Calendar, 2011-2012: 65). Trainees spend their first year of training on campus. In the second year, they go for an internship/practicum in the schools where they start their teaching practice under the close supervision and guidance of the principals and qualified and experienced teachers. They also get supervision and assessment visits from their LCE supervisors on a quarterly basis. In the third year, student teachers return to the campus to complete their programmes. The secondary teacher education programme serves two major purposes. Firstly, according to the Lesotho College of Education Calendar, 2011-2012 the programme:
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• “supports teacher trainees who are going to teach adolescents in secondary schools. Secondly, it prepares teachers to meet the challenges of the workplace, including occupational training and of tertiary education” p. 64).
• The programme seeks “to prepare teachers who are both professionally committed and competent to teach two subjects offered in secondary and high schools. Students enrolled in the Diploma in Education (Secondary) are required to take Education (professional courses), a number of general courses and one or two major subjects in which to specialize for teaching in secondary schools” (pp. 64, 65).
At the LCE, there are compulsory and general courses that all teachers are expected to take as requirements for their diploma. Two of the subjects (for example, either Mathematics and Science, or English and History) are major subjects that the trainee will ultimately teach in a secondary or high school when she/he has graduated. In addition, Life Skills Education (LSE) is a required one-semester course for all student teachers in the programme. In 2007, and in line with the introduction of LSE in the school curriculum, the college introduced LSE for student teachers. The LSE curriculum incorporates HIV and AIDS topics such as:
Adolescence, Human Sexuality and Reproductive Health, Relationships, Reproductive and Family Planning, STIs, HIV and AIDS and prevention, HIV Treatment and Care and Support, Life Skills for Behaviour Change and Planning and Teaching Adolescence and Reproductive Health (Reproductive Health and HIV and AIDS- Life Skills Course Book for Teacher- Trainees, 2012, p. xii).
The Life Skills Education course content at the LCE is organized into two modules. In the first module, life skills are introduced and then discussed in the context of various social problems (for
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example, poverty and inequality). The second module includes HIV and AIDS, both for personal welfare of student teachers and their assistance in the teaching situation, to pupils who are affected by the pandemic. In addition, the college provides a required general one-semester course: Guidance, Counselling and Life Orientation. This course covers content areas related to HIV and AIDS such as: Sexually transmitted infections, HIV and AIDS effects, causes of HIV infection, treatment, care and support, and HIV and AIDS prevention (Guidance and counselling and Life Orientation course outline, 2014: .4).
In terms of the pedagogical strategies used in the two courses, in a questionnaire administered to teachers in this study (N=12) in August 2013, some teachers stated that teacher educators delivered the content through lectures, discussions, demonstrations and question and answer and micro- counselling demonstrations. In addition, the teachers indicated that teacher educators used teaching and learning aids such as books, handouts, magazines on STIs, HIV and AIDS, pictures, leaflets, posters and models of genital organs to demonstrate the use of condoms. Experts and patients (People Living Positively with HIV and AIDS) are also invited to address the learners about HIV and AIDS.
They reported that the methods were effective because they allowed teachers to ask questions and to seek clarification where it was needed. In addition, teachers were able to watch the demonstration and practise opening the condom sachet and to insert the condom on the models brought to the lecture.
The teachers commented that the teaching and learning aids such as handouts, leaflets and magazines were effective. Workshop participants used them at their own time to remind themselves of the content that they learnt and that they could share knowledge with their partners outside the lecture room.
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Teachers are also trained at the NUL in the Faculty of Education. The normal minimum entrance requirements into the Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) programme are:
• At least a COSC in the first and second division, with a credit in English Language. A credit in Mathematics can also be required for certain courses in the Faculty of Social Science.
• Alternatively, at least a second class pass in the Secondary Teachers’ Certificate (STC) from the LCE, with relevant specialization or Diploma in Education (Secondary-Teaching) and other equivalent qualification and experience, as approved by NUL Senate. (NUL Calendar, 2006/2007, p.79) is acceptable.
The BEd is a full-time programme of four years’ duration. It requires a minimum of 108 and a maximum of 144 credit hours for students to graduate. The BEd (Secondary Teaching) degree program, which is the focus of this study, is offered as a first degree in the department of Language and Social Education. The programme offers three options: general, BSc Education or Bachelor of Business Education. In their first year, all student teachers on the BEd general curriculum are required to register for six core courses including: communication skills, Remedial Grammar, Introduction to the Foundations of Education, Essential Mathematics, Elementary Statistics and Computer Appreciation Awareness and Skills. Furthermore, they are expected to choose three courses from a list that includes, among others:
Literature and Society, the making of the Third World, French Structure 1 & II, Lesotho and the World, Phenomenon of Religion, and Human Sexuality and HIV and AIDS (Registration Requirements for year1 Information Booklet: 2).
At the second- year level, student teachers continue with the core courses and choose two major courses, which they will teach at school after graduation. The two are chosen from a list that includes:
African Languages, Development Studies, English Language, English Literature, French,
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Geography, History, Special Education and Theology. They also have elective courses that include a standalone HIV and AIDS course. Topics related to HIV and AIDS are also included in an elective course known as Human Sexuality and HIV and AIDS. The Human Sexuality and HIV and AIDS covers content that includes topics such as:
Sexual morality, social dimensions of human sexuality, Biblical perspective of human sexuality, sexual perversions, definitions of terms: transgendered identity, hetero-sexism, bi- sexual, lesbian. Gender, sexuality, and cultural Issues, Stigma and discrimination-implication for counselling, what is HIV and AIDS, HIV testing, antiretroviral therapy, and the Christian response to the epidemic (Human Sexuality and HIV and AIDS Course outline, 2014: 1).
While this study did not focus on the influence of religion on HIV and AIDS education, from the above list of topics one notes the dominance of Christian/Biblical content in the course. In the context of cultural taboos around sex and sexuality, it is recommended that future studies should examine the extent to and ways in which this kind of content influences the teaching of HIV and AIDS at the university and its subsequent teaching in the schools by the teachers who graduate from NUL.
Commenting on the teaching strategies in the course during a focus group interview, one teacher who graduated from NUL said:
I took Human Sexuality and HIV and AIDS as an elective so that I could be more conversant with the HIV and AIDS information for my benefit, my learners after graduation and that of my family. I learnt from demonstrations the correct use of the condoms. I also learnt from the discussion that people can live long and positively with HIV. My lecturer used statistics on HIV and AIDS, pictures, leaflets and model of genital organs to teach us (Ms. Letsatsi, 08 August, 2013).
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The above discussion suggests that neither the LCE nor NUL offers HIV and AIDS education as a major subject for student teachers. Instead, both offer it as either an elective or a once-off topic in a course. This is in spite of the fact that teachers are expected to teach LSE in general and HIV and AIDS education in particular at the school level. This means that many student teachers might graduate without ever registering for these courses in their training programmes. To illustrate, in a focus group interview, a teacher who graduated from the NUL commented:
I had chosen enough courses to meet the stipulated credit hours of my program unfortunately I could not include Human, Sexuality and HIV and AIDS as one of my electives (Mrs Ts’epe, 08 August, 2013).
This response was given is in spite of the fact that the LCE calendar states that the college’s mission
“is to train and produce educators competent to offer needed services in the community” (Lesotho College of Education [LCE] Calendar, 2008: p.6). Similarly, NUL’s HIV and AIDS Policy stated its mission as:
…to promote national advancement through innovative teaching, learning, research and professional services, producing high calibre and responsible graduates able to serve their communities with diligence (National University of Lesotho HIV and AIDS Policy, 2009: I).
This means that some student teachers might graduate from these two training institutions and obtain their teaching qualification without any HIV and AIDS education training. This state of affairs might affect the supply of teachers who are appropriately trained in HIV and AIDS education. It might also limit the teachers’ preparedness for their role and does not give LSE the status it deserves in the curriculum. Thus, although the policies have changed the curriculum to cater for HIV and AIDS, lack of proper teacher training might limit its effective implementation and effective teaching.
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In the next section I examine the extent to and ways in which on the job or in-service training of teachers, who have had or have no prior training in HIV and AIDS education is carried out in order to prepare and to support teachers who teach HIV and AIDS education in schools.