Ministry of Education conludes plan for HIV/AIDS response

August 30, 2006

Minister of state for education Sayyadi Ruma says the ministry will vigorously engage in the fight against HIV/AIDS pandemic in primary and secondary schools in the country.

Ruma stated this yesterday in Abuja when the Chairman, National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), Prof. Babatunde Oshotimehin, presented him with some publications on HIV/AIDS.

The minister noted that various institutions in the ministry had made financial allocations in their 2007 budgetary proposals for the campaign against HIV/AIDS scourge.

"No amount of initiatives for the prevention of HIV/AIDS scourge will be too much and your effort in promoting awareness among our youths cannot be too much considering the fact that they are the most vulnerable groups.

"'This publications are a welcome addition to the growing library of literature in the on-going drive by the federal government through the Ministry of Health, NGOs, our development partners and the Ministry of Education to make HIV/AIDS literature readily available to various segments of our society," he stressed.

Ruma announced that the ministry and agencies concerned with HIV/AIDS education were collaborating to address various problems involved in the promotion of HIV/AIDS education in schools.

He advised NACA to focus attention on designing programmes to meet the peculiar needs of each segment of the society.

"This has become imperative because 'the one cap fits' situation does not always work.

"There is also the need to translate the publication into various Nigerian languages for effective delivery of the massage to our children in their mother tongue.

"You must also join faith-based organisations in promoting abstinence as the best strategy in the fight against the HIV/AIDS," he stressed.

Speaking earlier, Oshotimehin said the publications were meant to pass elementary information about HIV/AIDS to children in primary and secondary schools.

He said what NACA had done was to provide some copies of the publication to states to provide the bases for them to buy more for their school systems.

"Each publication has a teacher's guide for teachers at various levels on methodology of handling information in the public"'The publications are a result of various research carried by NACA and it is informed by our desire to stem the tide of the scourge among youths who are the most vulnerable groups," he said.