Education sector faces severe impact from HIV/AIDS, Ugandan official says

A senior official at Uganda's Ministry of Education said recently that the impact of HIV/AIDS on the country's education sector would be severe if measures are not taken to address the situation, Uganda's Daily Monitor reports.

Yusuf Nsubuga, director for basic and secondary education said, "If the effects of HIV/AIDS are not addressed, know that your brothers, your sisters, your children in school are going to be affected." He said the education sector is "experiencing low morale of the workers because when people get sick and cannot perform as expected," then "the morale of both learners and educators is affected." Nsubuga also said that overwhelming stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS indicates an underlying problem in the education sector, although no studies have been done to determine the prevalence of the virus among those in the sector.

Nsubuga's comments were made one week ahead of the launch of the Supporting Public Sector Workplace To Expand Action and Response program, which is funded by the World Vision and USAID. The program is expected to be extended to the ministries of Local Government and Internal Affairs (Kirunda/Mashoo, Daily Monitor, 3/25).