Uganda: Let's Study Stigma No More
INCREASING DISCRIMINATION against teachers infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, in Uganda is a reversal of victories registered against the disease.
A teacher discussing this development with The EastAfrican recently, summed up the gravity of the matter, "Sometimes teachers who die as a result of HIV/Aids do not get their terminal benefits. Can you tell me why?"
Elinah Kasubo, one of the few primary school teachers that have gone public about their HIV status in Uganda, suggests that the government should create a scheme for HIV/Aids affected teachers to assist the relatives they leave behind.
In an interview with The EastAfrican conducted in a quiet classroom, where she was preparing reports from the end of term at Naguru Katale Primary School in Kampala, Kasubo expresses displeasure at the time wasted when patients go to pick up antiretroviral (ARV) drugs from government hospitals.
She said, "It takes a whole day lining up for ARVs in government hospitals because there are many of us. When you miss out, you are asked to come back the following day. Headteachers in government schools may allow you to take time off to go for treatment, but that is not the case with private schools."
She says she has experienced the horrors of being stigmatised since she came to know that she had the virus in 2000.
"Stigma is something than can shorten the life of a person affected by HIV/Aids," she says.
Out of her own experience she advises, "Sometimes it helps you to deal with stigma when you interact with others with the same problem. But if you sit at home and start lamenting it, it eats you up. Through interaction you learn of others who have far bigger problems than yourself."
The 35-year-old trained teacher revealed that it was not easy for her to come to terms with the fact that she was a victim. "I couldn't cope, but eventually I had to accept it and learnt to live with it. I learnt that I had HIV/Aids after a test following an on-and-off fever. Counselling thereafter enabled me to live positively."
Kasubo, who has been on ARVs since 2005 and gets regular treatment at the Home Care Unit in Mengo Hospital, says it is difficult to persuade a man to go for a test.
A teacher since 1992, Kasubo says many teachers are reluctant to come out into the open about their HIV status because their immediate bosses may not understand.
The stigma caused by HIV/Aids escalates teacher absenteeism as they want to be away from school whenever they have no lessons. This is meant to reduce their contact time with fellow teachers and students, whom they perceive to be pointing fingers at them.
A 2005 survey titled, HIV/Aids and Teacher Absenteeism: Dynamics in the School Environment commissioned and funded by Action Aid International Uganda, says that while HIV positive teachers might be present at school, they often exhibit signs of constant worry.
Another form of stigmatisation related to teacher absenteeism is that because their job security is threatened by their condition, they have to strain to prove their ability to their bosses. "This is in a bid to save themselves from being retrenched or laid off," the report says.
Several focus group discussions with teachers and, in some cases, interviews with school administrators revealed that the manner in which managers handled absenteeism of HIV positive teachers was very stigmatising, says the report.
Teachers pointed out that harassment by school management kept teachers' morale low.
An unnamed male secondary school from Bushenyi District was quoted saying, "In one school I worked in, an HIV-positive teacher strained to work extra hard in order to impress the head teacher to avoid being laid off. One day he collapsed and died shortly after reaching hospital.
"In my school, teachers do not speak out, they don't disclose their status, they suffer silently for fear of victimisation," a female primary school teacher in Kampala said. "There have been at least three cases of teachers being laid off because of the headteacher found out, or may be suspected, that they were HIV-positive. This unfortunately happened even where the teachers were still strong enough to work."
"I know of at least three headteachers who recommended that their HIV positive teachers be transferred at a time they were bedridden, a Bushenyi district education officer revealed.
Among the numerous ways in which HIV/Aids has affected the education sector is through keeping a large number of teachers absent from work.
In some cases teachers through being differently affected or infected have been absent for more than two school terms, and yet have received little help to enable them to resume their duties. Coupled with this is the psychosocial effect that many teachers suffer from; while they may be physically present at school, and in classrooms, they are "spiritually absent."
"This has far reaching effects on the teachers, fellow teachers but perhaps most important, the learners who are the primary beneficiaries of the teacher's, service especially now as focus has been progressively shifting from quantity and physical access towards quality of education," the report observes.
Reacting to the Action Aid report the Assistant Commissioner for Personnel in the Ministry of Education, John Baptist Ssemakula, said, "The issue of stigma is something that has to be addressed over time because it is related to attitude change. It is not like switching a machine on and off. It requires enhanced and continuous sensitisation through clear and smooth provision of scientifically-proven information to demystify the conceptual minds of the public."
UGANDA NATIONAL TEACHERS Union secretary general Teopista Birungi said, "We are using this report to launch advocate campaigns to assist those teachers that have been infected and affected by HIV/Aids."
The Unesco Education Global Monitoring Report 2006 says that the HIV/Aids pandemic is the main cause of teacher shortages and absenteeism, especially in Africa.
"In the best-case scenario, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, would each have lost 600 teachers to HIV/Aids in 2005. In Mozambique, HIV/Aids-related teacher absenteeism is likely to have cost $3.3 million in 2005, plus $300,000 for additional teacher training," says the report.
A 2003 UN country team study suggested that further research should "highlight the indirect costs of the epidemic, such as those resulting from teachers being unable to teach, and human-hours being lost due to attending funerals, ensuring that employers make contingency plans to replace essential staff who are no longer able to function; and emphasise access to ARV drugs for treatment."
Women tend to have more access to medical support because there are organisations targeting them, says the report.
In terms of gender, the causes of absenteeism were found to be generally the same for both male and female teachers.
There were, however, remarkable differences that arise out of the culturally assigned male and female roles.
This had a bigger impact on female teachers in as far as HIV/Aids related causes of absenteeism were concerned, the Action Aid study says.
The study was conducted in the three districts of Bushenyi, Katakwi and Kampala, representing the Western, Eastern and Central regions. The respondents comprised both primary and post-primary male and female teachers, students and centre co-ordinating tutors. The report showed that teacher absenteeism was prevalent in both primary and post-primary educational institutions.
Source: The East African (Nairobi), Bamuturaki Musinguzi, October 17, 2006
http://allafrica.com/stories/200610170191.html
A teacher discussing this development with The EastAfrican recently, summed up the gravity of the matter, "Sometimes teachers who die as a result of HIV/Aids do not get their terminal benefits. Can you tell me why?"
Elinah Kasubo, one of the few primary school teachers that have gone public about their HIV status in Uganda, suggests that the government should create a scheme for HIV/Aids affected teachers to assist the relatives they leave behind.
In an interview with The EastAfrican conducted in a quiet classroom, where she was preparing reports from the end of term at Naguru Katale Primary School in Kampala, Kasubo expresses displeasure at the time wasted when patients go to pick up antiretroviral (ARV) drugs from government hospitals.
She said, "It takes a whole day lining up for ARVs in government hospitals because there are many of us. When you miss out, you are asked to come back the following day. Headteachers in government schools may allow you to take time off to go for treatment, but that is not the case with private schools."
She says she has experienced the horrors of being stigmatised since she came to know that she had the virus in 2000.
"Stigma is something than can shorten the life of a person affected by HIV/Aids," she says.
Out of her own experience she advises, "Sometimes it helps you to deal with stigma when you interact with others with the same problem. But if you sit at home and start lamenting it, it eats you up. Through interaction you learn of others who have far bigger problems than yourself."
The 35-year-old trained teacher revealed that it was not easy for her to come to terms with the fact that she was a victim. "I couldn't cope, but eventually I had to accept it and learnt to live with it. I learnt that I had HIV/Aids after a test following an on-and-off fever. Counselling thereafter enabled me to live positively."
Kasubo, who has been on ARVs since 2005 and gets regular treatment at the Home Care Unit in Mengo Hospital, says it is difficult to persuade a man to go for a test.
A teacher since 1992, Kasubo says many teachers are reluctant to come out into the open about their HIV status because their immediate bosses may not understand.
The stigma caused by HIV/Aids escalates teacher absenteeism as they want to be away from school whenever they have no lessons. This is meant to reduce their contact time with fellow teachers and students, whom they perceive to be pointing fingers at them.
A 2005 survey titled, HIV/Aids and Teacher Absenteeism: Dynamics in the School Environment commissioned and funded by Action Aid International Uganda, says that while HIV positive teachers might be present at school, they often exhibit signs of constant worry.
Another form of stigmatisation related to teacher absenteeism is that because their job security is threatened by their condition, they have to strain to prove their ability to their bosses. "This is in a bid to save themselves from being retrenched or laid off," the report says.
Several focus group discussions with teachers and, in some cases, interviews with school administrators revealed that the manner in which managers handled absenteeism of HIV positive teachers was very stigmatising, says the report.
Teachers pointed out that harassment by school management kept teachers' morale low.
An unnamed male secondary school from Bushenyi District was quoted saying, "In one school I worked in, an HIV-positive teacher strained to work extra hard in order to impress the head teacher to avoid being laid off. One day he collapsed and died shortly after reaching hospital.
"In my school, teachers do not speak out, they don't disclose their status, they suffer silently for fear of victimisation," a female primary school teacher in Kampala said. "There have been at least three cases of teachers being laid off because of the headteacher found out, or may be suspected, that they were HIV-positive. This unfortunately happened even where the teachers were still strong enough to work."
"I know of at least three headteachers who recommended that their HIV positive teachers be transferred at a time they were bedridden, a Bushenyi district education officer revealed.
Among the numerous ways in which HIV/Aids has affected the education sector is through keeping a large number of teachers absent from work.
In some cases teachers through being differently affected or infected have been absent for more than two school terms, and yet have received little help to enable them to resume their duties. Coupled with this is the psychosocial effect that many teachers suffer from; while they may be physically present at school, and in classrooms, they are "spiritually absent."
"This has far reaching effects on the teachers, fellow teachers but perhaps most important, the learners who are the primary beneficiaries of the teacher's, service especially now as focus has been progressively shifting from quantity and physical access towards quality of education," the report observes.
Reacting to the Action Aid report the Assistant Commissioner for Personnel in the Ministry of Education, John Baptist Ssemakula, said, "The issue of stigma is something that has to be addressed over time because it is related to attitude change. It is not like switching a machine on and off. It requires enhanced and continuous sensitisation through clear and smooth provision of scientifically-proven information to demystify the conceptual minds of the public."
UGANDA NATIONAL TEACHERS Union secretary general Teopista Birungi said, "We are using this report to launch advocate campaigns to assist those teachers that have been infected and affected by HIV/Aids."
The Unesco Education Global Monitoring Report 2006 says that the HIV/Aids pandemic is the main cause of teacher shortages and absenteeism, especially in Africa.
"In the best-case scenario, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, would each have lost 600 teachers to HIV/Aids in 2005. In Mozambique, HIV/Aids-related teacher absenteeism is likely to have cost $3.3 million in 2005, plus $300,000 for additional teacher training," says the report.
A 2003 UN country team study suggested that further research should "highlight the indirect costs of the epidemic, such as those resulting from teachers being unable to teach, and human-hours being lost due to attending funerals, ensuring that employers make contingency plans to replace essential staff who are no longer able to function; and emphasise access to ARV drugs for treatment."
Women tend to have more access to medical support because there are organisations targeting them, says the report.
In terms of gender, the causes of absenteeism were found to be generally the same for both male and female teachers.
There were, however, remarkable differences that arise out of the culturally assigned male and female roles.
This had a bigger impact on female teachers in as far as HIV/Aids related causes of absenteeism were concerned, the Action Aid study says.
The study was conducted in the three districts of Bushenyi, Katakwi and Kampala, representing the Western, Eastern and Central regions. The respondents comprised both primary and post-primary male and female teachers, students and centre co-ordinating tutors. The report showed that teacher absenteeism was prevalent in both primary and post-primary educational institutions.
Source: The East African (Nairobi), Bamuturaki Musinguzi, October 17, 2006
http://allafrica.com/stories/200610170191.html
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 4:29 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home