HIV/AIDS workshop for teachers opens in Kumasi

Kumasi, July 4, GNA- A two-week Training of Trainers workshop for District Training Teams (DTT) under the Teachers-Agent of Dissemination and Change Programme of the Ministry of Education and Sports opened in Kumasi on Monday.

The programme, which is the Ministry of Education and Sports workplace HIV/AIDS response initiative, is to educate personnel, teachers, students and pupils on HIV/AIDS prevention. The workshop, which is being attended by 200 District Training Teams, also seeks to equip participants with the appropriate methodologies and skills to enable them to incorporate the teaching of HIV/AIDS issues in the curriculum of basic and senior secondary schools. Mr Newman Twumasi-Amponsah, Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Education, said the Ministry of Education and Sports' approach to the HIV/AIDS preventive education was informed by the integration of HIV/AIDS issues in school curricula of basic and secondary schools rather than being considered as a separate subject.

He said teachers had a crucial role to play to bring the HIV/AIDS prevalent rate in the country down since they had the capabilities to impart on behavioural and attitudinal change of the people, especially students and pupils who are considered as the "window of hope". Mrs Hilda Eghan, Co-ordinator of the programme, said the Ministry of Education and Sports HIV/AIDS Secretariat was established in 2002 as a workplace preventive strategy.