Uganda: Pupil power – students help shape AIDS education curriculum

Education is key to preventing the spread of HIV. But while sex education in Uganda covers effectively the biology of HIV, it fails to prompt behaviour change. Action research from Birmingham University, undertaken in Uganda, engaged pupils in choosing the content and delivery of the curriculum in an attempt to fulfil this need. Sex education is included within the Uganda curriculum, but not as a topic on its own. Lessons are teacher-centred and emphasise abstaining from sex until marriage and shunning homosexuality. Structured questionnaires, focus group discussions and personal accounts reveal that pupils see these lessons as boring, irrelevant and a waste of time.