Evaluating school health policies in Zambia: an application to administration of the hiv and aids health education policies in the selected basic schools of Mazabuka district.

Abstract

This paper evaluated the effectiveness of the HIV and AIDS school health education programmes in the selected basic schools of Mazabuka district. The principle objective of the study was to examine the implementation models of the prevailing school health policies in the selected schools and to determine the effectiveness of these school-based policies in transmitting HIV and AIDS health messages. Self-administered questionnaires and a semistructured interview guide were used to collect data from a sample of 180 respondents. Data for this study was analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The study revealed that 94 per cent of the respondents had a great deal of understanding of basic concepts of HIV and AIDS and other related knowledge. Additionally, government initiatives through development of directives on what to teach, who to teach and how to teach HIV and AIDS school health content have been spotted in all the target schools. The central argument of this paper is that school based HIV and AIDS health policies exist and that the implemented policies have begun to yield a positive impact at the basic school level. Finally, the paper established that HIV and AIDS health education like any other subject in Zambia is not without challenges. Among the challenges identified was lack of specialised training for health education teachers. The Ministry of Education (MoH), therefore, needs to train and retrain teachers in HIV and AIDS health education components in order to instill confidence and effective teaching.

Key words: Evaluation, HIV and AIDS education, School health policies, Basic schools