Educational Vulnerability

As it has become increasingly clear that keeping girls in school is protective against HIV, achieving Education for All (EFA) would be a critical contribution to HIV prevention ... Focusing EFA efforts on the poor, who are the least likely to attend school, will have particular benefits in the fight against HIV. Poverty and HIV are intertwined issues in southern Africa ... While increasing levels of general education can be effective, tailored HIV prevention curriculum also has a role to play...

Matthew Jukesa, Stephanie Simmonsa and Donald Bundy, 2008

The educational challenge of HIV and AIDS in Africa is deeply rooted in the pervasive gender inequalities in African societies and the subordinate status of women and girls. For economic, social, family, health and cultural reasons, many young girls are forced to leave school early. This reality contributes greatly to lowering female literacy rates and to generally poor educational attainment. The lack of effective education and poor literacy contributes to the disempowerment of women. In the context of women’s health and HIV and AIDS, it puts them at serious risk, not only prior to infection, but also post-infection. Poor education attainment generally reinforces gender inequalities leaving many women uneducated or ill-informed as regards issues such as the transmission of HIV and on how to protect themselves from becoming infected.

There are a number of key issues which must be highlighted and addressed with regards to girls and women’s education. The main focus points are the threat HIV and AIDS poses to the progress already made in girls access to and completion of basic primary education; how education is a ‘critical mitigating force’ for developing life skills and knowledge in terms of supporting themselves and their families; and that by assisting girls in overcoming the effects of HIV and AIDS and supporting them in gaining access to education, they become more empowered to support themselves, their families and communities and also contribute to national development.

In the longer term, and more generically, education plays a key role in establishing conditions that render the transmission of HIV and AIDS less likely—conditions such as poverty reduction, personal empowerment, gender equity. It also reduces vulnerability to a variety of factors, such as streetism, prostitution, or the dependence of women on men, which are a breeding ground for HIV infection.

Michael J Kelly, 2000