15th International AIDS Conference Bangkok, Thailand - July 11-16, 2004

Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. C10193)

Badhan SK, Lal P, Kashyap GL
MAM College and HKMC Trust, New Delhi, India

ISSUES: School based AIDS education is now the top most priority for the Govt. of India. HIV/AIDS has been included in the curriculum of 9th standard of the school education10 years ago and it was expected from the teachers to teach the topic to their students in the routine classes. However, they seem to be reluctant to teach the topic. This might be due to the reason that no formal sensitisation of teachers with regard to the teaching of the topic has been done so far. Since the topic is sensitive and needs to be taught in a specific manner, the sensitization of the teacher is a must. Thus keeping these issues in mind the present study was undertaken.

DESCRIPTION: The present study was done between July and December 2002 with the objective to assess the awareness and attitude of senior secondary level schoolteachers regarding HIV/AIDS and teaching of sex education in the schools. A total of 158 schoolteachers of 43 schools selected randomly from different zones of Delhi were included. The information regarding age, sex and qualification of the teachers and various aspects of HIV/AIDS including attitude towards sex education and HIV +ve person was collected using a self administered and semi structured pre tested proforma.

LESSONS LEARNED: Although majority of the teachers knew that AIDS is a fatal disease but the routes of transmission were correctly known to very few of them. The attitude towards sex education was observed to be encouraging but only 70% teachers had positive attitude towards HIV+ve person and 60% of the teachers have ever discussed the issues of HIV/AIDS with their students. The female teachers had more positive attitude than their counterparts. Recommendation: Sensitisation of schoolteachers through formal training with regard to the teaching about HIV/AIDS is the need of the hour. It should be taken up as early as possible.

040711
C10193

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