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HIV testing of pupils a dangerous option

A bias is shown when teachers are keen to undertake what scared their lot

THE Department of Basic Education and South African Democratic Teachers Union seek to impose compulsory HIV testing of pupils at primary and secondary schools.

In a radio interview last month, Sadtu general secretary Mukwena Maluleke confirmed the union's support for the proposed compulsory HIV testing of pupils.

This mooted policy initiative smacks of hypocrisy and systematic arrogance on the part of Sadtu and the department.

Since 1999, Sadtu has been watering down any proposition that seeks to recommend compulsory HIV testing among teachers.

Their perpetual defiance was undeniably informed by the truth that most of their members are very scared of HIV testing and its imagined ramifications.

In 2000 the Ministry of Education commissioned Abt Associates, a health consultancy firm, to assess the effect of HIV prevalence among teachers in South Africa.

Although its findings were never officially made public, the Abt report found that HIV prevalence among teachers was 12,5percent in 2000 and was projected to reach 30percent by 2015.

The Abt report further projected that HIV prevalence among teachers would be at 22,5percent in 2004. The report irked and infuriated both the ministry of education and Sadtu, hence an unexplained decision to keep its contentious findings under lock and key.

Notwithstanding its disputed findings, the Abt report awakened the nation to a critical need to appraise the effect of HIV prevalence among teachers.

Then in 2004 the Education Labour Relations Council commissioned the Human Sciences Research Council to undertake a properly informed study on "the demand and supply of educators in South Africa".

The HSRC study found that HIV prevalence among teachers was 12,7percent in 2004 and 13,5percent in 2005. It was also projected that it will decline gradually to 11,5percent by 2015.

These figures constitute an empirical representation of a ticking time bomb waiting to explode at any time. Despite their contradicting findings, both the Abt and HSRC reports acknowledge the negative effect of HIV prevalence on learning and teaching in schools.

It is against this backdrop that Sadtu and the department should honestly rethink and reassess their selective morality and the proposed compulsory HIV testing of pupils.

South Africa's constitutional jurisprudence does not countenance any usage of coercive force against anyone, except under the "dictates of exceptional necessity" to uphold the rule of law.

Voluntary HIV testing and counselling are among the most scientific and realistic methodologies of dealing with the HIV epidemic. Testing should, at all material times, remain a voluntary exercise and a constitutional choice.

Parents, pupils, teachers and everybody else must be encouraged to know their HIV status and also contribute to the realisation of an HIV-free society.

There is a persisting ill-informed tendency among education authorities to cast blame on pupils whenever problems are encountered.

In a typical fashion, teachers and principals always blame lack of commitment on the part of pupils for the high failure at schools.

School-based challenges demand a holistic approach and intervention.

The discourse of research methodology reckons that no variable could be properly measured or analysed in isolation from other constituent variables. Compulsory testing of pupils would not diminish the scourge of HIV from school premises.

To date, there is no empirical evidence that suggest that pupils are an "endangered species" in as far as HIV infection is concerned.

The department's and Sadtu's proposal is tantamount to "putting an albatross" around the pupils' necks for no apparent reason.

It seeks to create a fallacious and falsified impression that pupils are the primary contributors of HIV infections at schools.

Annual reports from the HSRC, Medical Research Council and South African National Aids Council attest to the contrary. HIV prevalence among pupils is not yet properly researched and documented.

The only available research data on HIV prevalence at schools is on teachers. Blaming pupils for the prevalence and spread of HIV infections at schools is myopic, thoughtless and unwarranted.

The Life Orientation curriculum on sex education should also be introduced at colleges, universities, workplaces and Parliament.

It is also every citizen's responsibility to demystify and diminish the stigma attached to HIV and Aids.

The department and teacher unions should not claim to be experts on the causes, effects, prevention and treatment of HIV and Aids.

The development and application of scientific experiments should be left to relevant specialist doctors and professors at universities and research institutions.

There are several devastating implications for the country if such a proposition could be adopted and applied.

Firstly, a pupil's HIV test results may have a direct bearing on the HIV status of his or her parents and siblings. This may probably wreak social disorganisation and pandemonium in most families.

Secondly, there have been reports on pupils who commit suicide on learning that they failed Grade 12.

It is highly probable that some pupils who tested positive may contemplate suicide.

Thirdly, it will be very costly on the part of government to administer school-based HIV testing on a continuous basis.

Teachers are not professionally equipped and trained to deal with post-traumatic stress and disorders that may result from compulsory testing of pupils.

Fourthly, children will begin to despise schools, teachers and principals and this will consequently culminate in high rates of dropouts and illiteracy.

- The writer is a researcher at the Institute for Dialogue and Policy Analysis

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