North China Municipality Makes AIDS Prevention Education Compulsory for Students

Responding to the increasing HIV risk for youths in China, officials in the northern city of Tianjin have decided to require HIV/AIDS education for students.

As China's HIV epidemic spreads from high-risk groups to the general population, young people are increasingly at risk for the disease, according to statistics released late last year by the China Teenager and Youth Research Center and Central Committee of the Communist Youth League.

According to officials from local health and local education bureaus, Tianjin junior high school students will take six HIV/AIDS prevention lessons; senior high school students will receive four; vocational students will be taught four to six; and university students will take two lessons.

Condom vending machines will be installed in college medical centers, and campuses will host HIV behavior supervision sites and be targeted for informational posters. School libraries will be required to stock books about HIV/AIDS prevention. In addition, students with AIDS and those from poor families affected by AIDS will have half their tuition fees waived, while students who are AIDS orphans will receive free education.

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