The purpose of the study is to record VCT practices and services between June 2003 and June 2004 within the South African higher education sector. These case studies seek to establish a baseline and to reveal valuable lessons learned as well as good VCT practices.

While it has long been suspected that HIV prevalence among educators is high, there has been no scientific study to assess this.

Education plays a key role in the development of any society.

One of the key determinants for the loss of public educators in South Africa is mortality due to AIDS. This report presents an estimate of the number of educators who died from AIDS in 2004, including the projected distribution of AIDS deaths by age group.

The evidence presented in this report shows that the health of our educators is a source of concern because the prevalence of HIV is high. The determinants are multiple: behavioural, knowledge deficit, lack of self-efficacy skills, migratory practices, gender, and alcohol misuse.

Analysing the extent and severity of HIV/AIDS among educators without looking at the broader context within which schools operate, provides only a partial understanding of the immense challenges facing the education sector in South Africa.

The study focuses on the management and diffusion of HIV/AIDS information in institutions of higher learning in South Africa. The HIV/AIDS policy for educators, learners and students provided a strong foundation on government involvement on HIV/AIDS management in higher education.

This report acknowledges the voices of members of rural communities across South Africa, and ensures that policies undertaken to improve the quality of rural education are informed by the powerful insights of the people in those communities.

The project aims to determine the magnitude of the impact on and the implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the University of the Free State (UFS), while, in the process informing its response to the epidemic.

This report provides the first overview of education attrition and mortality trends not reliant on estimates, models or projections, but on primary data contained in government registers.