HIV/AIDS education in regular and special (deaf) secondary schools in Ghana

Abstract

This study investigated HIV/AIDS education in two secondary schools in Ghana comparing students’ knowledge, attitude and behaviour. Furthermore, this study investigated students most trusted source of HIV/AIDS knowledge, how students see the disease against other diseases and how HIV education is grounded in the schools curricular. In all, 283 students were involved in the survey. Their ages were between 12 and 25. The findings established that student’s knowledge on how to avoid the disease, mode of transmission, and prevention were very high. However, it was unearthed that female students fear for the disease was higher than their male counterparts and this have motivated them to know their status. It was also realised that students from the two schools involved in the surveys attitude toward people infected and affected by the disease were positive. However, student’s attitude toward condom use was negative. Moreover, respondents reported their dissatisfaction toward HIV education that go on in their respective schools. They added that education on the disease have had little impact on their behaviour. However, their trust for their teachers, school as well as the media for HIV/AIDS knowledge was very high. In contrast, students trust for their parents and religious leaders on HIV knowledge was very low. These have triggered the conception of total restructuring of the curricular to scale up an intervention that would target specific behaviour change. Parents and religious leaders should as well be integrated into the education of the disease in order to help bring the needed behaviour transformation on young people.