HIV/AIDS Education Programs in Kenya: Contexts of Implementation in Secondary Schools in Kisii County

Abstract

In the absence of a medical vaccine against HIV infection, research shows that educating individuals about actions they can take to protect themselves is the most effective means to control the epidemic. School-based HIV/AIDS education programs are premised on this assumption and are considered the best social vaccine to influence young people's attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge about HIV infection, prevention, and access to treatment and care. Drawing upon a larger ethnographic study, we use a tripartite analytic framework for understanding HIV/AIDS-related education to examine how schools in western Kenya implement HIV/AIDS education programs. Findings reveal that the implementation of these programs is context-driven and contested along patterns of sociocultural beliefs, religious morals, economic challenge, and a wider crisis in education. We argue for de-localization of principals and teachers and that HIV/AIDS education programs should not only be informational, but also empowering and focused on the individual as well as the context within which the individual functions.

Citation

Ongaga, K. and Ombonga, M. (2012), "HIV/AIDS Education Programs in Kenya: Contexts of Implementation in Secondary Schools in Kisii County", Wiseman, A.W. and Glover, R.N. (Ed.) The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Education Worldwide (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 27-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2012)0000018005