THE MINISTRY of Education, Youth and Culture is spearheading the implementation of a curriculum designed to deliver HIV/STI education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels a national project as part of a wider partnership to arrest the spread of the disease.
This partnership began in 1990, when the first of three project phases commenced with the objective to develop and evaluate a curriculum model for the infusion of HIV/STI information and also, to introduce healthy lifestyle techniques into the curricula of Grades six to nine while, utilising a participatory approach. This was, in addition to improving the competency of teachers to deliver HIV/STI information within the existing educational process and to sensitise relevant support staff.
The first project which was funded initially by the World Health Organisation (WHO)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for two years, lasted from November 1990 to April 1993 due to logistical problems that caused a four-month extension.
According to Dr. Delores Brissett, Senior Education Officer and Co-ordinator of the project phases, since the start of this pilot project, the first of its kind for UNESCO, it has been the aim of the Ministry to capitalise on the experiences of each previous phase.
"We have experimented with various techniques and activities, supporting strategy framed on participation of target groups and inter agency collaboration in order to keep improving," she explained.
Whereas the first phase of the project experimented with 20 schools, the second phase, that began in November 1995 and continued through 1998, included 180 selected schools in the four parishes with the highest incidence of HIV/STI - St. James, St. Catherine and Kingston and St. Andrew.
This second project, partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which assembled the initial pool of bilateral funding, also targeted students from Grades one to 11, using selected teachers as school co-ordinators who would provide preventative education to reinforce positive student behaviours, especially relating to sexuality. Guidance counsellors were also present as chief resource persons.
Dr. Brissett pointed out that from this project phase, the Ministry pursued a baseline study that expounded on the attitudes of students and where they received information about HIV/STI.
She said that in 2002, the Ministry embarked on the third and most comprehensive project phase to date. The Ministry is the designated lead agency to collaborate with the Ministry of Health in executing the National HIV/STI Strategic Plan , with World Bank and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) financing the project over a four year period.
During this period, activities will focus on students and teachers across Grades 1 through 12.
The project will, among other things, focus on policy matters, that is, the revision of the Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) policy; producing a student-friendly version of the HIV/AIDS policy; developing and reproducing student materials and establishing an HIV/STI programme for the Ministry.
Infused in the overall project is an examination of two of the main problems of living with HIV/STI - stigma and discrimination. Dr. Brissett said this was a priority in the previous project phases and will be so in the third phase.
"While we do emphasise responsible decision making and sexual behaviours, we also look at relationships and developing productive relationships in trying to oust stigma and discrimination," she stressed.
St. James and St. Catherine, where the increasing number of persons living with HIV/AIDS is one major concern have been specially targeted again for special emphasis.
"We are working closely with Ministry of Health and UNICEF to do more selective work in these two parishes on some localised activities," she says. Although the schools to be included in the project are yet to be determined, Dr. Brissett says this time around, the basis for selection will be broader to include all types of schools from all parishes. "The Ministry will be working with selected schools to create annual action plans that focus on particular goals of the programme," she said.
