Youth knowledge on transmission of HIV/AIDS in Stellenbosch area, South Africa : Does socioeconomics, gender and race play a role?

Abstract: This thesis investigates learners, from grade 8-12, medical and cultural knowledge of how HIV and AIDS transmit. The investigation was performed in four different schools with structurally different backgrounds set in Stellenbosch area, South Africa. One could expect people from different structural and economic classes to react and interpret educational material differently based on their differing belief systems. These differences in belief systems are normally brought about by families' differences in ethnical, religious, economic and educational background. Some elements of some belief systems may even be incompatible with the educational material presented. For instance, beliefs based on traditional medicine and/or religion may propose nonscientific solutions to cure or live with HIV/AIDS. The Department of Education National Education Policy Act on HIV/AIDS for Learners in Public Schools 1996 (Notice of 1999), WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA and other NGOs have all come together in the issue of HIV/AIDS and are on the same page on how the virus transmits. The South African government have been ambivalent in the issue of HIV/AIDS and have acted and made some contradictive comments that also could influence how people view this disease. This thesis presents the understanding of the HIV/AIDS phenomenon by learners of different ages that represent the most prominent races and the different economic classes in the Western Cape region of South Africa at the time of writing in 2006-2007. These learners all received sciencebased HIV/AIDS education (life skills orientation) at their schools. The result shows that there are differences in learners' knowledge of how HIV/AIDS transmits from a socioeconomic, gender, racial point of view.