Education losing teachers to HIV/Aids
MASERU — Education Minister ’Makabelo Mosothoane says HIV/Aids is continuing to wreak havoc in Lesotho’s education sector.
Mosothoane was speaking at a high schools debating competition on HIV/Aids on Saturday.
She said Lesotho is continuing to lose teachers to illness and death caused by HIV/Aids while many orphans fail to access education.
“The loss of teachers through long illnesses and death has been devastating for many of our schools in the country and it is a problem for which a quick and easy solution cannot be found,” Mosothoane said.
“The number of orphaned children continues to increase astronomically year-after-year, making it difficult for children to access education as they should.”
She said her ministry had come up with interventions and programmes to curb the effects of the pandemic.
Among these is the bursary scheme which was established to provide financial and educational assistance to orphans and vulnerable children, she said.
“The ministry also established an HIV/Aids unit which works closely with schools in the provision of psycho-social support through the training of counselors,” she said.
“These of course can never be adequate when one considers the multifaceted nature of the effects of the pandemic, hence the need for an across the board, joint effort by all of us.”
Mosothoane did not provide current statistics on the number of teachers dying of Aids. Efforts to get comment on the figures from the ministry’s information department also proved fruitless yesterday.
But the ministry’s website said in 2003, HIV/Aids-related deaths among teachers amounted to approximately two percent of the teacher population and was projected to increase to three percent in 2015.
“For the high prevalence projection, Aids-related deaths amounted to approximately two percent of the teacher population in 2003, increasing to three percent in 2015,” said the report.
“These deaths are over and above the normal death rate within the population of teachers and they substantially add to the high attrition levels currently being suffered by the profession in recent years, estimated at around seven percent for primary and 10 percent for secondary teachers,” it said.
Comment by sematsatsa on 7 March 2013:
Hao banna, its 2 sad hore ebe HIV e ntse bolaea batho mehleng ena. Nna kannete ke tsaba CANCER hoo, not HIV eo ho tsebahalang hantle hore na e bakoa keng
Comment by cantryman on 7 March 2013:
but it’s like there r sum spices used here, 2 percent is too much considering the population of teachers. However, teachers shud wake up if they still lack knwldge whn it comes to issues of HIV coz we nd them.
Comment by Tlheko on 7 March 2013:
lifofu li a tataisana!practice what u preach.!fela kea ba utlwela,wa fumana molekane a setse mokhotlong,monna a lula maseru,litakatso,chelete e nyane ya matichere,ha a khone ho ya hae ha ngata o qetella a iphumanetse motsoalle a mo tlosang bolutu!But ha se excuse ya ho se condomise.
Comment by keizer on 7 March 2013:
yes ! but the minister must impliment the policy that can reduce these epidemic.
Comment by tsimo kholo on 7 March 2013:
haeba matichere ao bongata ba rona re nahanang hore leseli la thuto le ka fumanoa ho bona eba joale le bona bantse ba qhafutsa seretseng joalo ka rona bo ra mootleng ehlile mathata a mangata sona ke bana ba rona ho bonahalang hantle hore ba keke ba fumana thuto e nepaheng nthleng ea thobalano
Comment by cantryman on 7 March 2013:
@Tlheko, who said matichere a khola chelete nyane, e nyane ha u e bapisa lea mang? Wht u r saying is nt true, it is just the behavioural problem nt finencial! @ Ts’imo-kholo, u need to understand tt pple ve different wayz of behaving whn it comes to issues of HIV. So matichere just like those pple behave like tt as they r nt angels. How they pass content has got nothing to do with their health issues. U need to get into literature n u ll discover tt even medical practitioners face the same prblm, wht differs is statistics.
Comment by Bobete on 7 March 2013:
yeah, every sector is infected or affected.
Comment by S'bongile on 7 March 2013:
please people; sex education!
Comment by Lekhoakhoa on 9 March 2013:
This is annoying, is this Minister ever going to take responsibility for the failings of her department? The standard 7 results were bad and she blamed something rather than herself, O’Level results were poor and she blamed something I cannot remember what, always excuses. I can remember someone I had a good conversation with, mentioning that in Denmark teachers must have a degree, even the Primary School ones. How can we expect teachers to teach our children about AIDS if they do not look after themselves? If teachers are going to spend time on the sick does the Minister not realize that children are going to fail their exams? Why are people still dying of AIDS when there is so much out there to be used for treatment? You hear people running around saying they have cancer etc not getting proper treatment for AIDS, Wake up people! I feel the minister must take responsibility here. We need well educated teachers not high school failures!
Comment by MADONDO on 9 March 2013:
AIDS/HIV IS THERE AT EVERY DEPARTMENT NT EDUCATION ONLY,is de minister aware dat gone r those days tsa awareness?ppl r aware hore de disease prevails ho setseng ke rona batho ka mabaka a rona a fapaneng hore ube hontse hona le nu infections,so,ke nahana hore it’s tym 4 interventios,ebe tsona li trust fund tseo li etsetsoa ona matichere.
Comment by Sherry on 9 March 2013:
This is not good. We need teachers, without them the community will stagnate.
Comment by Lekhoakhoa on 10 March 2013:
Yes, we need teachers, they should know what they are doing, how infectious deceases are transmitted, they should be teaching our children properly. According to the article it does not look like they know what they are doing. We must make sure that anybody who is infected gets proper medication, not just teachers, this things are available worldwide nowadays. I feel that the education department must take some blame here. How do they recruit teachers? What education levels are expected?
Comment by LERATO on 11 March 2013:
Minister, what are you gonna do now? 2%, hahahahaha! Educate teachers ‘me’. Ke bona matichere a institution e ‘ngoe a sa tsebe le ho Qhobotsa feela. Let alone ho browser internet. Ba tla tseba joang ho bala le ho tseba ka AIDS! Ke nahana hore batho ha ba sa shoa ke AIDS. ‘Me’ joale u etsa joang ho lokisa taba ee? Ke nako ea hore u designe policy.
Comment by mymothersaid on 11 March 2013:
It is about time she resigned!
Comment by nomatterwhat on 12 March 2013:
this is all about behaviour change. hore na ke tichere, ke moruti, ke motho feela tjena ha ke sa ikemisetsa ho fetoha ha hkea ikemisetsa nd HIV infections e tla lula e hloa mekoalaba. batho re hloho lithata e bile re nahana hore HIV ke maemo a loketseng the despised sectors of population.
Comment by Sekho on 12 March 2013:
@ tsimo kholo, please take this, HIV awrarenes and all related information about AIDS is not only 2 b outsourced by teachers. You parents who sent children to school need to take the priority by stopping infecting infants with AIDS before they are born. Is it a teacher who is to provide parents with this basic information of AIDS prevention form mother to child? If “yes” please accompany you child 2 school. Aids prevalence is a major concern beyond daubt. I should emphasize that if someone underestimate the contribution of teachers in the fight against aids at skol grounds has to restore his /her mind to work well and start to assist us to get free frm aids distortioin.
Comment by mymothersaid on 13 March 2013:
If teachers cannot look after their own bodies and find out how AIDS is contacted then I do not want them anywhere near my children.