Education Sector HIV & AIDS Global Progress Survey UNESCO/UNAIDS
Education is the foundation for the success of all HIV programming. Individuals need the requisite knowledge, attitudes and skills to adopt healthy behaviours and to act against discrimination. Personal efficacy skills and health literacy are essential for making informed choices and accessing and using prevention and treatment methods and services across ones lifespan.
Comprehensive HIV education should therefore be part of a broad skills-based curriculum that addresses HIV in the learners context and in an age-appropriate way over critical years of development. In addition, general education that fosters literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking skills, among many others, supports the AIDS response by building self-esteem, assertiveness and economic independence, thus reducing vulnerability, especially for girls. Better educated learners have the skills to be healthy, and teachers who have the skills and support to live healthy will have the opportunity to teach better.
This report by UNESCO highlights key findings from the 2011-2012 HIV and AIDS Global Progress Survey as well as other recent research, to provide a picture of how countries' education sectors are responding to the challenges of HIV and AIDS, what progress has been made since 2004, as well as to point out the main policy implications of the current situation. The report highlights some of the critical action points that need to be addressed to improve the effectiveness of the education sector's response. (2013)