Alex Mifsud - Schools AIDS Day Speech

I am pleased to be at Melbourne High School for Schools AIDS Day 2000 and to remember Eve Van Grafhorst. Eve and her family remind us all:

How far we have come to break down discrimination for people living with HIV/AIDS, but:
Also challenge us to recognise the prejudices and that still exist and how we can overcome them.

I first started to focus on today's event as I watched last Sunday night's ABC news at 7.00pm. It was the first report from the World AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. I heard of half a million children orphaned by AIDS in a country that has the largest % of HIV positive cases in the world.

And I saw an interview with one of the agency workers and her final assessment of the situation:

First there's denial.
Then there's taking stock of the situation.
Then we have to work out what we're going to do about it.

The Department of Education, Employment and Training has a firm commitment to HIV/AIDS education and believes that schools have a major role to play in educating young people about HIV/AIDS.

Schools can provide an environment that breaks down discrimination and stereotypes in relation to HIV/AIDS by:

giving students accurate information and:
allowing them to explore their own values and beliefs in relation to HIV/AIDS
and to do this within the context of comprehensive health education.

In the past two decades the DEET has undertaken to improve the quality and effectiveness of STI/AIDS prevention education programs in Victorian schools, while supporting the goal of the National AIDS/HIV Strategy; That goal: "to eliminate the transmission of HIV and to minimise the personal and social impact of HIV infection".

In 1991 the AIDS/HIV Policy and Implementation Guidelines were released to Victorian schools. This two part document provided the Policy position of the Education Department HIV/AIDS and guidelines to for schools to implement the policy.

In the introduction of an effective HIV/AIDS policy, schools were given support in the development, review and implementation of effective prevention focused education programs. And, in line with the all such programs, an effective preventative program needs to be founded on whole school approaches to health education and offered to all students.

Schools also needed to develop effective organisational and welfare structures to contribute to a school climate which eliminates discrimination and minimises the personal and social impact of STI's and HIV infection.

School based education formed a significant part of Australia's response to the AIDS virus and the National HIV/AIDS strategy recognised the importance of preventative education. While the National HIV/AIDS Strategy resulted in considerable success in controlling the epidemic, research was showing that there was still a long way to go in terms of prevention education.

In 1996 the Education Department released the STD/AIDS prevention education strategy in Victorian government secondary schools.

This strategy helps schools to evaluate the effectiveness of their existing sexuality and health education programs and if necessary, update them to be in line with the:

Victorian Curriculum and Standards Framework,
The current national and international research on adolescent sexuality
The AIDS/HIV Policy & Implementation Guidelines (1991).

I now want to outline the key elements of a comprehensive STI/AIDS prevention education program. There are 5 aspects to it:

Takes a whole school approach, which means consulting with parents, using community resources and involving students.
Places Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS in the context of sexuality and health promotion.
Recognises and accepts the rights of students to make their own sexual decisions and affirm the diversity of all students.
Recognises that we can no longer afford to treat adolescents as a homogenous group, assuming that all young people have a common response to the AIDS threat and then producing one general, all purpose AIDS educational program based on this assumption.
Enables students to see the gendered nature of social relationships (including sexual relationships) and the power dynamics inherent in them and assist students to understand how masculinity and femininity are constructed through safe sex practices.

Ongoing professional development is provided so that our teachers are skilled and confident in teaching a comprehensive health program in partnership with local health professionals.

One significant component in the STD/AIDS prevention education strategy is the resource kit for secondary students called Catching On. This kit, trialled in Victorian schools, received very positive feedback from the evaluation conducted by La Trobe University. The resource kit comprises teaching and learning materials designed fro students in Years 9 & 10; an information booklet for student research and teacher reference and a professional development video for use with teachers and parents. The kit is now being prepared for release to all schools.

The kit has been designed to support schools in the provision of a comprehensive program that considers these issues in a health promoting framework that examines the social and cultural context of sexuality and safe sex issues and is part of the Department's ongoing commitment to HIV/AIDS education.

At the start of my address, I emphasised that DEET has a firm commitment to HIV/AIDS education and I have outlined what has been done so far to translate that commitment into policies, programs and strategies.

In saying this, I fully recognise that, like so many similar issues in our society, this is a whole-of-community issue that everyone has to address. If I was ever in any doubt about that, the news report from the World AIDS Conference on TV last Sunday night certainly confirmed it.

So, in closing, I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the work of the Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated and thank them for their commitment to provide invaluable support to individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS. The accommodation, getaways and other services provided reflect a very considerable and very practical commitment to this whole-of-community issue.