Life skills-based education for HIV prevention: a critical analysis

This paper was developed for the working group on education and HIV/AIDS, and summarises issues raised at a meeting in London on 17 May, 2004.Over the last decade, there has been increased support for the teaching of life skills to young people, partly due to the perceived limitations of information-based HIV/AIDS education. However, implementing life skills education in schools to date has proved to be problematic, especially in circumstances where approaches to teaching are very formal. This paper will briefly examine the challenges that have arisen in terms of implementation, pedagogy and relevance, and will discuss potential ways to overcome some of these obstacles.