Educators' attitudes towards HlV/AIDS at rural schools
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Date
2010
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
One of the most devastating diseases in. modem history as measured in terms of loss of human
life is the HIV/AIDS pandemic - Approximately 200 million people have already died. Sub-
Sahara Africa is the most affected with South Africa severely affected with an estimated 6
million HIV positive South Africans and 2.5 million already dead from AIDS or related illnesses.
This study, located at several primary and secondary schools in the deep rural areas of the
Scottsburgh circuit, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was undertaken to investigate the trend that,
despite a higher level of knowledge and exposure to information about HIV/AID amongst
educators and despite comprehensive campaigns to fight HIV/AIDS, an increasing number of
educators are still dying from the disease. In this study it is assumed that knowledge alone is not
enough and that attitude change is central to HIV/AIDS prevention since attitudes influence the
way in which persons behave. The following research questions are asked: What is the nature of
educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, and, are the educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS
influenced by variables such as age, gender, religion, experience and qualification? Thus the
study aims to: determine the nature of educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, and find out
whether or not educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS are influenced by characteristics such as,
gender, age, experience, religion, and qualification. To determine this, a quantitative study was
conducted with 71 secondary and primary school educators in the rural area of KwaZulu Natal,
Scottsburgh district. The survey, a cross sectional design, involved administering a fixed response
questionnaire (Likert scale type) categorized into five scales, which described the nature of
educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS.
The study revealed that there was no significant difference amongst the sampled educators'
attitudes towards HIV/ADS, and that these attitudes were mostly negative. This difference was
also not influenced by educators' age, gender, qualification, experience or religion. The study
found that educators were still discriminating, reluctant to test themselves and disclose their
HIV/AIDS status, which may be related to the failure of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. The
campaign to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in schools and m communities appears to be
jeopardized by such attitudes of educators.
The following was recommended: the cascading system of training educators did not work and
therefore the Department of Education must ensure that every educator has an opportunity to
receive training in HIV/AIDS information; that support systems (emotional, psychological,
medical) for those educators infected and affected by HFV/AIDS be made available; financial
allocations to HIV/AIDS prevention programmes should be increased but with better fmancial
control; employment of full-time co-ordinators who are knowledgeable; provision of incentives
to encourage educators to test for HIV/AIDS and programmes that provide social skills training
needed for behavioural change, as well as those that aim at reducmg stigraatization, ostracism
and discrimination of individuals infected. The researcher suggests that an immediate, urgent
strategy to address educator attitudes towards the disease is required from the relevant government departments.
Description
Submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2010.
Keywords
Attitudes towards HIV/ADS