Teachers' Perception of Inclusion of NIV/AIDS in the School Curriculum

Abstract

This study investigated teachers’ perception of inclusion of HIV/AIDS into Health Education curriculum as a panacea for the spread of AIDS pandemic among secondary school students in Enugu State. Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a disease caused by human immune Deficiency Virus presently has no cure and so deadly that it takes a great toll on mankind. Education is a problem solving instrument for any society and curriculum is the instrument whereby the educational system strives to attain its goals. Teachers are potential instrument in driving home any curriculum document designed for the maximum benefit of the learners and their perception on every thing relating to education matters a lot. The population for the study was 5550 teachers teaching in 258 public secondary schools in Enugu State. The sample for the study was 765 teachers drawn proportionately from six education zones in Enugu State. Questionnaire which was validated by experts was the instrument used for data collection. Survey research design was used for the study. Three research questions guided the study. Mean scores were used to answer the three research questions. Some of the major findings show that teachers in secondary schools in Enugu State perceived the inclusion of HIV/AIDS into Health education curriculum on the students to include: knowledge of how to minimize the rate of AIDS transmission. Consequent upon the findings, some recommendations were made, one of which was that HIV/AIDS be included in the curriculum of all higher institutions. Suggestions for further studies were also made to the effect that a similar study of this magnitude be conducted to cover the entire teachers in the southeast geo-[political zone of Nigeria.

Keywords: Perception, curriculum, teachers, HIV