Health classes to include HIV prevention education

Preventive education on Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome will be integrated in Health lessons in schools next year.

This after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-National Commission of the Philippines came up with “HIV/AIDS Preventive Education Information Kit for School Teachers”.

These information kit aims to build essential skills among school teachers in order to strengthen the education sector’s responses to HIV/AIDS issues and concerns at the school level.

The move is also in recognition of the role of teachers as communicators and educators imparting life-changing and life-saving knowledge on HIV/AIDS to their schools and surrounding communities.

The course is based on evidence that given the current absence of a cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS, preventive education and the transfer of relevant skills and attitudes are critical to reducing the people’s vulnerability to the disease.

It was also learned that representatives of the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education Skills Development Authority, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Health and the Philippine Aids Council in the Visayas already converged to produce the localized version of the information kit.

With support from UNESCO-Bangkok, the UNESCO office in the Philippines led by UNESCO Ambassador Preciosa Soliven reformatted contents of the information kit to fit to the specific needs, and within the context, of Filipino schoolchildren.

Further, Dr. Evelina Vivencio who sits as Philippine consultant on HIV/AIDS said that the recent conduct of the UNESCO HIV/AIDS Workshop for teachers is in preparation for the integration of the knowledge and skills in said information kit in Philippine school curricula.

Roseanne Wong, HIV/AIDS Prevention Education officer of UNESCO-Bangkok headed the development of the HIV/AIDS information kit used in other Asia-Pacific countries such as Nepal, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

In the country, said kit is expected to go a level higher in terms of purpose, according to Wong, as it would be integrated into the education curriculum. In countries mentioned beforehand, the kit only served as a reference material. — Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV