More than one-sixth of Mozambique’s 9Â 000 teachers are dying of HIV/Aids each year, lowering the quality of education and jeopardising future development, a government official told Reuters on Tuesday.
Education and Culture Minister Aires Aly said in an interview that the pandemic had become a national emergency, eroding a critical human resource that is key to the poor Southern African nation’s economic development.
”We are losing 17% of our 9Â 000 teachers each year, which means we are talking of 1Â 360 workers lost to HIV/Aids, and the disease is spreading very fast at national level”, he said.
Health officials say more than 16% of the 20-million Mozambicans between the ages of 14 and 49 — generally the most economically productive — are infected with HIV, and an estimated 500 new infections occur each day.
”This is a crucial issue for us and we are trying to train more teachers for them to be able to deal with it [the pandemic] in the communities. Teachers play a major role in the economic development of this country”, he said.
Despite its limited skilled labour force, Mozambique’s economy has boomed in recent years, spurred by a rise in foreign investment and development aid, and GDP growth is projected to hit 8% this year after reaching 7,5% in 2007.
Aly said the devastating effect of HIV/Aids on the country’s human resources threatened to damage its economic prospects.
Mozambique, still one of the world’s poorest nations, is struggling to raise the $150-million a year it needs to rebuild its dilapidated education infrastructure, neglected during the 17-year post-independence civil war that ended in 1992.
Very few of those needing antiretroviral drugs in the former Portuguese colony have access to the life-saving treatment, though there are plans to set up a factory to produce the drugs in Mozambique. – Reuters