The education system was experiencing its worst crisis ever because of HIV/Aids, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Friday.
In 1990, South Africa and Thailand had the same HIV prevalence rate of 0,8%, Asmal said in a speech prepared for delivery at the HIV/Aids conference in Midrand.
In 2002, Thailand’s prevalence rate had grown to two percent while SA’s antenatal prevalence rate hit a 25% high ? a mere 12 years later.
Asmal said: ”I want to submit, therefore, that because of HIV/Aids, our schools, our education system and society are experiencing a crisis such as they have never experienced before.
”And unless we take determined action now, that crisis will last well into the future. We cannot allow this to happen. Never, I say.”
He said Thailand, Uganda, Senegal, the United States, and the United Kingdom were some of the countries who successfully used education as a weapon to fight the scourge.
The three-day opened on Thursday and would end on Saturday. It was attended by children, traditional leaders, and academics.
Everyone in the education sector should work together to lead SA into a future without Aids, the minister said.
”That is the challenge we face.”
He suggested that the conference should focus on, among other things, what the education sector should do through its schools to combat the scourge, and the implications of the epidemic on the sector’s planning. – Sapa