AIDS Draining South Africa's Schools

In Hlabisa, South Africa, teachers take sick leave for up to six months at a time. Student enrollment in the first grade is falling. Funerals have become a common family excursion. Among teachers nationwide, AIDS-related deaths have soared by more than 40 percent in the last year, according to statistics compiled by the South African Democratic Teachers Union. "Almost every week, we are burying a number of educators and learners," said Godfrey Mashaba, manager of the Hlabisa school district, which has 191 schools and about 90,000 students. In KwaZulu-Natal, where the rate of HIV infection among the general population is pushing 40 percent, the average recorded age of teachers dying was 34.

Doctors, researchers and community leaders blame a dramatic increase in the number of deaths caused by complications from AIDS. At Nkodibe High School in Hlabisa, Principal Heaven Zulu said the rate of absenteeism and loss of teachers are having a devastating effect on learning. "The loss of working hours is terrible," said Zulu, who has been with the school for 10 years. A teacher "comes for only two weeks, then becomes too weak to work again. Soon he exhausts his leave credit."

At Nkodibe, educators are struggling to drive home the AIDS prevention message to young people. "They act all sarcastic about it," Zanele Manzini, 17, said of her peers. "They say, 'I'm too young to get it.' They also say that if I'm meant to get it, then I'm going to get it anyway. I don't think they really understand that it is deadly." Manzini said the best way to spread awareness about the danger of AIDS is for young people who have the disease to speak about it with their peers.

LoveLife, a nonprofit HIV prevention program targeting people ages 12 to 17, believes that it can make a difference. The program touts itself as "a new lifestyle brand" for young South Africans, promoting healthy living and positive sexuality. LoveLife uses television talk shows and skits, public service announcements and advertising to send its message. Its aim is to reduce the rate of HIV infection among 15- to 20-year-olds by 50 percent in five years.

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