HIV/AIDS and trauma among learners: sexual violence and deprivation in South Africa

This article discusses the impact of HIV/AIDS on education in South Africa. South Africa has the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world. In 2001 over 4 million people were already HIV positive, 56% of them women. It is not yet possible to determine rates of HIV infection in schools and other learning institutions - among educators and among learners. The HIV/AIDS projection model commonly used in South Africa suggests that among 15-19 year olds almost 16% of African females are likely to be HIV positive, compared with about 3% of African males. Teachers in high risk areas must therefore assume that at least one in every five students in the classroom is HIV positive.