Date: 09/03/2007

Source: Department of Education

Title: Pandor: Launch of Higher Education HIV and AIDS Programme

Address by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor MP, at the launch of the Higher Education HIV and AIDS (HEAIDS) Programme, at Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria

The Honourable Ambassador Briet
Chairperson of Higher Education South Africa (HESA), Professor Barney Pityana
Vice-chancellors and deputy vice-chancellors
HEAIDS Programme Director, Dr Shaidah Asmall
Chairs of University councils
Colleagues from various government departments
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to this important event marking the launch of the HEAIDS Programme. This is a moment to truly and critically reflect on the way forward regarding HIV and AIDS pandemic in the higher education (HE) sector.

HIV and AIDS is the greatest public health crisis facing the world today. It is estimated that 38,6 million people around the world have been infected with HIV to date and AIDS has killed more than 2,8 million people. Studies show that despite recent improved access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) and care in many regions of the world, the pandemic claims an estimated 11 200 new HIV infections and nearly 8 000 deaths every day.

The challenge faced by the HE sector with regard to HIV and AIDS is succinctly captured in the following statement from the Association of African Universities, "To a greater degree than ever before, African universities must renew their commitment to help Africa find effective solutions to its perennial problems of hunger, poverty and disease. They must, by their research and teaching, strengthen their contribution to improvements in food production and distribution, disease control and health service delivery and the general wellbeing of their people. In particular, the HIV and AIDS crisis poses a serious threat to African societies within which universities are situated. We need to recognise that the solution to this problem might well lie in Africa. African universities must in any event be at the forefront of research, education and action in this matter."

The Ministry of Education is ultimately responsible for developing appropriate HIV and AIDS policies and strategies for HE as a sector. But, historically, our universities have enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and they are used to finding solutions to the challenges they face. So I feel both justified and comfortable in sharing this responsibility for the sector's HIV and AIDS response with our vice-chancellors through HESA.

It is in this spirit of shared ownership of the programme, that I would like to address this gathering. I am not going to spend these precious minutes outlining in detail the HEAIDS goals and objectives. Everyone here has received a folder with documents that provide that information.

Instead, I would like to use this opportunity to pose some questions about higher education's response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic and to suggest where we might look for answers.

What set me thinking was a book of photographs by Gideon Mendel titled, "A broken landscape." The book confronts the impact of AIDS in South Africa and other countries on the continent. As you turn the pages you view image after image of emaciation and tenderness, suffering and compassion, fear and love. These twinned opposites run through the book and the powerful pictures are matched with very simple stories.

Edwice Zulu, a homecare volunteer says, "Janet is the main patient that I am taking care of now. She lives very close to my home but I did not know her before she was ill. I clean her house, I wash her, I help her taking medicines and I cook for her and feed her. The problem is at night because Janet is alone. There is nobody to give her water to drink or to look after her."

Edwice is from Ndola in Zambia. But there are thousands of homecare workers in South Africa doing exactly what she does. Across this country, largely hidden from sight, people with precious little in the way of material possessions are making an enormous contribution to shield family, friends and neighbours from the worst ravages of HIV and AIDS.

By way of comparison, the HE sector has infinitely more resources than community structures including intellectually gifted and finely skilled human resources. Our opportunities to make a difference are much larger and more varied. Some outstanding leadership has emerged from the HE sector. It has come for example:

* from researchers in dedicated units who apply themselves exclusively to the puzzle posed by the HIV and AIDS pandemic
* from professors in our health science faculties who double as consultants at public hospitals and from the registrars who work tirelessly alongside them
* from campus managers who have developed workplace programmes
* from university based public law experts who have fought against HIV related discrimination
* and from campus based children's rights advocates who have stood up for the most vulnerable.

There is no question that some members of the HE community have made a huge contribution, not just to their institutions but to the country as a whole. However, we need to ask ourselves whether the HE sector as a whole is supporting the national HIV and AIDS response with the vigour, skills, knowledge, commitment and imagination that it could.

As a nationally co-ordinated effort in the fight against HIV and AIDS, HEAIDS seeks to strengthen the capacity, systems and structures of all Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in managing and mitigating the causes, challenges and consequences of HIV and AIDS in the sector and to strengthen the leadership role that can and should be played by the HE sector.

The current HEAIDS intervention builds on a number of positive developments from HEAIDS phase one. The primary focus of phase one was to enable institutions to engage with the pandemic and its impact on the sub-sector. In this regard, seed funding was provided directly to institutions to design and implement institutional responses.

The phase two programme is now moving from the planning phase into action. It offers new opportunities and additional resources for the leadership at every institution to drive a stronger HIV and AIDS programme on our campuses.

The programme will provide support to the Department of Education and HESA to achieve the vision of a national education and training system which contributes towards improving the quality of life and prosperity of all citizens especially with respect to the HE sub-sector.

We all recognise and accept that HEIs have a duty to help protect both their employees and their students from HIV infection and the most serious consequences of infection. This is largely a question of building an environment that enables people to make life choices to safeguard their health by providing services that are accessible and of good quality and creating a climate where respect for others is an absolute norm.

The remaining elements of the HE HIV and AIDS response focus on the world beyond HE. They are as follows:

* what we teach our students about HIV and AIDS in order to prepare them for a role in the wider world
* the kinds of research that we conduct in this field and how we share our insights
* and the services that we provide to the general community through partnerships and outreach programmes and the practical work required of our professional students.

The Department of Education is convinced that the HE system can play an important role in shaping attitudes and practices of future decision makers and in so doing, further prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Historically, universities have been at the heart of agitation for social justice. In our own country, university communities played a courageous role in our fight for freedom, forming part of a tradition of academic and student activism that stretches from Tiananmen Square in the east to the Californian campus of Berkley in the west. There is something uniquely powerful about the mixture of boldly progressive social theories, passionate academics and idealistic young students. In this age of globalised materialism where managerialism seems to have triumphed over leadership, we may well ask ourselves, "Where have the brave social theorists and the hordes of idealistic students gone?"

As with so many of our social and health problems, the HIV and AIDS pandemic point us firmly back to one thing, 'the imperative of creating a more equal and just society. Our universities' contribution to the national HIV and AIDS response lies, in part, in their ability to provide powerful intellectual leadership in the fight against poverty and inequality. As a society and as a government, we would benefit from the sense of direction that can be provided through the development of social theories that honestly confront the realities of the 21st century.'

If there is one trend that distinguishes the second phase of HEAIDS from the first, it is the new emphasis on working to address HIV and AIDS as a sector rather than as a collection of loosely linked institutions. We have been made a very substantial funding allocation of about R160 million (?20 million) by the European Union (EU) and this guaranteed source of finance allows us to work at a meaningful level on national interventions.

Your Excellency Ambassador Briet, I am sure you will agree that the implementation of this programme has posed challenges to my Department, HESA and the commission. Despite these challenges we continue to firmly commit ourselves to a successful partnership between my Department and the European Commission. In this regard my Department, HESA and the commission of this programme has posed challenges; we are very thankful for the grant and we intend to ensure that the full allocation is used as intended.

One of the first activities will be a national survey involving a sample of 25 000 staff and students to establish how prevalent HIV is on our campuses and to understand the beliefs and behaviour of our students as they relate to HIV and AIDS. So when the HEAIDS survey comes to your campus, we ask you to give it your fullest support!

A second area of activity that will take shape soon, is the focus on equipping our student teachers to deal more effectively with the challenges they will face as they enter the classroom. We are looking to develop much more detailed content on HIV and AIDS in the teaching curriculum and to spend time on developing the skills that teachers need to respond to learners living with the virus or affected by its impact on their families.

Our schools sector has developed progressive policy on HIV and AIDS, but policy has probably got ahead of our human capacity to implement its provisions at the interface with learners. So we are going to make sure that new teachers, no matter which institution they have attended, will be empowered to bridge this gap.

In this regard, I am pleased to announce that my Department is to make a contribution by means of a once-off payment of R250 000 to each institution in order to bolster the sector's commitment to the fight against the disease and its impact.

The launch of HEAIDS programme will go a long way in making sure that we make necessary and timeous interventions to address the problem before it escalates to uncontrollable levels.

Chairperson and guests, if the President considers that William Butler Yeats sometimes puts things better than he could I am not shy to concede the same point. So, in closing, I want to remind you of Yeats's view of our life's work. "Education is not the filling of a pail," he said "but the lighting of a fire." It is our mission to light our academics and students' fires, their passion for ideas, for life and the future.

Thank you!

Issued by: Department of Education
9 March 2007