Aids killing off Moz teachers

Published in HIV/AIDS News by LearnScapes, issue 294
25/03/2008

Maputo – More than one-sixth of Mozambique's 9 000 teachers were dying of HIV/Aids each year, lowering the quality of education and jeopardising future development, a government official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Education and Culture Minister Aires Aly said in an interview that the pandemic had become a national emergency, eroding a critical human resource that was key to the poor southern-African nation's economic development. "We are losing 17% of our 9 000 teachers each year, which means we are talking of 1 360 workers lost to HIV/Aids, and the disease is spreading very fast at national level," he said.

Health officials said more than 16% of the 20 million Mozambicans between the ages of 14 and 49 - generally the most economically productive - were infected with HIV, and an estimated 500 new infections occured each day. "This is a crucial issue for us and we are trying to train more teachers for them to be able to deal with it (the pandemic) in the communities," he said.

Despite its limited skilled-labour force, Mozambique's economy boomed in recent years, spurred by a rise in foreign investment and development aid, and GDP growth was projected to hit 8% this year after having reached 7.5% in 2007.

Aly said the devastating effect of HIV/Aids on the country's human resources threatened to damage its economic prospects. Mozambique, still one of the world's poorest nations, was struggling to raise the $150m a year it needed to rebuild its dilapidated education infrastructure, which had been neglected during the 17-year post-independence civil war that ended in 1992.

Very few of those who needed anti-retroviral drugs in the former Portuguese colony had access to the life-saving treatment, though there were plans to set up a factory to produce the drugs in Mozambique.