AIDS Epidemic Lays Waste to South African Schools

The AIDS epidemic is devastating South Africa's families and institutions, including its education system. The epidemic is not only killing students and teachers but also dramatically reducing school enrollments, swelling the ranks of dropouts and bankrupting schools across the country, according to a new study by the University of Natal. "The education system is under a profound threat," said Peter Badcock-Walters, the report's author. "We're seeing a decline in the quality of education. The productivity and potential of the country will be negatively affected."

The study estimates that 275,000 school-age children in KwaZulu-Natal Province are not attending school. First grade enrollment has dropped 60 percent since 1998. Almost 85 percent of schools have reported the death of teachers, presumably from AIDS. Although no one specifically tracks AIDS deaths among teachers, the South African Democratic Teachers Union determined that the 565 teachers who died between June 2000 and May 2001 averaged only 39 years of age, suggesting that AIDS killed many, if not most, of them.

AIDS deaths among teachers are expected to climb dramatically during the next 10 years. Replacement teachers, who are younger and less experienced, have even higher HIV infection rates than their predecessors -- and limited access to treatment that might prolong their lives. The death rate, too, will accelerate, as thousands of teachers with long-latent disease progress to AIDS and eventually die. The report predicts that as many as 70,000 new teachers will be needed in this province alone by the end of the decade to replace the sick and dying. "The net effect is that there will be less and less qualified graduates," Badcock-Walters said. Increasingly, sick or dying parents never bother to enter their kids in school, the study found.

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