Last month in Addis Ababa, members of the Ethiopia Teachers’ Association (ETA), together with staff from EI and partner organisation the Education Development Center (EDC) benefitted from a training session on HIV and AIDS education. As a result, all 24 participants involved increased their knowledge and skills on HIV and AIDS and to increase their confidence in teaching about the virus.

At the event, teachers pinpointed both a set of actions to be implemented individually and a more general action plan to fit into a broader union strategy. These action points include, for example, teachers establishing anti-AIDS clubs at schools, mainstreaming messages on HIV and AIDS and establishing guidance and counselling programmes for students. After the session, participants commented that the training had a huge effect on their way of thinking about HIV and AIDS, and that they felt moved and motivated to tackle the pressing issues associated with it. For more information, please contact us.

In its publication “Teachers’ News”, the Ethiopia Teachers’ Association (ETA) has featured an article detailing the impact of HIV and AIDS on education sector supply and demand. The article makes the link between education and HIV and AIDS, noting that on the one hand education can provide the knowledge and skills to promote behavioural change and lower infection risk; help reduce stigma, silence, shame and discrimination and alleviate conditions such as poverty and gender discrimination that facilitate the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Conversely HIV and AIDS damage education by reducing the supply of teachers, diminishing the quality of teaching and reducing demand for education due to higher child mortality, inability to pay fees and the child’s imperative to stay at home to take care of ill relatives. The article concludes that, in the presence of HIV and AIDS, it is critical to ensure that the supply of well trained teachers is sufficient to meet demand for education. For more information, please contact us.

The Teachers’ Union of Malawi (TUM) has recently developed a ‘Statement of Professional Ethics and Code of Conduct for Teachers’. In doing so, TUM is one of the ever-increasing number of unions to debate the Code amongst its membership, culminating in a decision at the level of the Board or Council. Before releasing the document, TUM carried out consultative meetings in the three regions of Malawi, getting feedback from members who expressed their critical views in the area of disciplining.

The Code of Ethics is intended to act as a guide for teachers to help them maintain the high standards of their profession and uphold the highest integrity. The TUM document outlines the duties of the teacher vis à vis the education authorities, students, fellow teachers and the community. TUM takes the view that there should only be one Code of Conduct for all grades of teachers at the national level. This implies that the union seeks to address the issue in coordination with the education authorities. For more information, please contact us.

Last year the United Nations General Assembly agreed to meet to undertake a comprehensive Review of the progress achieved towards the targets set out in the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. The subsequent UNGASS meeting will take place at the United Nations headquarters in New York from May 31 to June 2, 2006.

The first two days will feature an interactive hearing with civil society, roundtables, panel discussions and plenary sessions. To round off the event on June 2, a high-level meeting reaffirming commitment to the 2001 Declaration will be convened. To ensure the Review draws on the expertise of all key sectors engaged in the AIDS response, the General Assembly is drawing up a list of civil society participants (to join those already accredited through ECOSOC). For more information visit www.ungasshiv.org/index.php/ungass.

Under the leadership of the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO, a new set of guidelines on quality education has been drawn up for educationalists, teachers and community leaders. A special taskforce has developed these training materials to help key education sector players gain the knowledge and skills necessary to provide quality education. The project has identified five essential elements for consideration in quality education and school effectiveness, namely: education management, teaching methods, learning & monitoring, assessment and community participation. To download the Guidelines, please click here.

In honour of the Inter Agency Task Team for HIV/AIDS and Education’s bi-annual meeting in London, the Partnership for Child Development and ActionAid International are hosting a Symposium: ‘Maximising the potential of the education sector response in the fight against HIV and AIDS’ on May 17th.

The Symposium will bring together diverse actors in education and health to demonstrate the importance of factoring in HIV/AIDS to EFA planning and, conversely, the central role of education in the multisectoral response to the epidemic. Representatives from all UNAIDS co-sponsors, bilateral agencies and civil society will attend. This is an unprecedented and timely opportunity to bring together people from the different sectors of education, HIV & AIDS and health to strengthen partnerships, discuss emerging challenges and best practice and to collectively develop recommendations for future research and action. The Symposium will take place at BMA House, Tavistock Square, London.

For more information please contact Alice Woolnough or Conchi Vera-Valderrama.

Extensive data on EFA in 180 countries is now available at a click with the new search tool on the Global Monitoring Report website.

This tool, developed by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in partnership with the EFA Global Monitoring Report team, is based on data contained in the 2006 report statistical annex tables. It enables a search for information by table, theme, indicator, country and region, and to export results in Excel format. To access the tool,visit: http://gmr.uis.unesco.org/.

“ Some are not fully aware. The poor have more immediate concerns like food and shelter, so they do not give it much attention. Still others are aware but cannot do anything given the current political situation. At governmental level the problem is recognised, but the authorities are more interested in keeping themselves in power and are not committed to this issue.”

“ It is not but ETA is striving to include it. We are urging the government to include HIV in the national curriculum and in policy. We are also trying to mobilise stakeholders such as parents, and external actors such as the WHO and EI to use their influence. ”

“ All of our publications, including the monthly newspaper and quarterly magazine include information on HIV and AIDS. All ETA meetings include items related to AIDS; how to raise awareness; how to prevent infection and how to fight stigma. We have just embarked on a new programme, whereby 25 teachers were trained in HIV and AIDS education. Each one of those trained will be tasked with training another 10 members by the end of the year. Women’s groups and girls clubs are also vital to ETA’s strategies. We conduct workshops and meetings to sensitise and empower our members to prevent infection, fight stigma and support orphans.”