AIDS in schools: a human rights perspective on parameters for sexuality education

Abstract

This article is set against the background of a sustained HIV/AIDS epidemic affecting the South African population, including the education sector. It explores the education sector’s responses to the epidemic in the area of sexuality education for learners. It is submitted that lifeskills education — the main medium for imparting sexuality education — is an essential instrument in the armamentarium against HIV/AIDS. However, lifeskills education is not value-free. The values that underpin lifeskills education are libertarian in orientation. They cherish diversity, and do not sit easily with a sectarian view of life. The success of lifeskills education will depend, in part, on striking an acceptable balance between the duty of the school to impart the knowledge and skills essential for development and survival, the evolving capacity of the learner, and parental authority. In the final analysis, the impetus is towards a sexuality education in which the core values of human dignity, liberty and equality are protected and promoted in accordance with the imperatives of the Constitution.