The National Skills Fund (NSF) has made a grant of almost R25 million to the Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme (HEAIDS) to equip academic staff at public universities and Further Education and Training (FET) colleges with the skills to integrate and address HIV and AIDS issues in their curricula.
The funding was announced on 29 August by Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Mduduzi Comfort Manana, at a strategy summit of HIV programme managers from public higher education institutions. The summit was convened by HEAIDS to discuss institutional programme priorities and available support facilities.
“Our universities and colleges, like all other institutions of society, cannot escape the social responsibility to engage with the challenges of South Africa,” said Deputy Minister Manana in announcing the grant. “The HIV epidemic raises the role and responsibility of our teachers in the pressing matters of our society and in the lives of our students. Through this intervention, our graduating students will also be equipped to make a difference in the productive sectors of our economy and society as a whole in relation to HIV and AIDS.”
The National Skills Fund grant will be used specifically to help university lecturers to incorporate relevant modules of HIV and AIDS into their teaching programmes, bringing HIV into the mainstream of various academic courses.
“It might seem obvious to use our teaching and learning platforms to deal with a national priority like the HIV epidemic, but it’s not that simple. Academics who are experts in their fields do not always find it easy to incorporate perspectives on HIV and AIDS into their teaching programmes,” explained HEAIDS director, Dr Ramneek Ahluwalia. “HEAIDS will create a pool of experts in the area of HIV curriculum development and be in a position to train other academics in integrating HIV content into the curriculum across different disciplines.”
In addition to the NSF grant, the strategy summit addressed a partnership with the Networking HIV/AIDS Community of South Africa (Nacosa) to develop programmes to address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and inter-sexed (LGBTI) students and staff at higher education institutions. LGBTI individuals are identified in the NSP as a target population for HIV mitigation programmes.
Content supplied by HEAIDS