HIV and AIDS POLICY - Department of Education

• The development and approval of a Behaviour Management Policy for schools, which aims topromote positive student behaviour through the collaborative efforts; to enable all stakeholders tounderstand and exercise their rights and responsibilities in managing student behaviour; and toenable schools to create a fair, caring and safe learning environment for students and teachers;• The initiation of a training program for school counsellors.While much progress has been made, there nonetheless remains a lot to do. Some key challenges are:• Improving the understanding of the contents of the HIV and AIDS Policy and of roles andresponsibilities for implementing it among education officers, school heads and teachers;• Up-dating the personal development curriculum and increasing the integration of HIV and gender intoother subjects;• Improving the quality of HIV education, especially the effective use of student-centred teaching andlearning strategies and methods to develop students’ ability to think and reason;• Increasing and improving the implementation of HIV education at technical and vocational educationand training (TVET) schools;• Building the capacity of the vast number of teachers who were already teaching in schools when thepersonal development subject was introduced so that they can teach HIV effectively and comfortably;• Ensuring access to adequate teaching and learning materials and their even distribution; and ensuringteachers are aware of the materials that are available at their schools and know how to use them;• Increasing the supervision of personal development lessons.This policy provides guidance to the national education system’s efforts to address the HIV epidemic inPapua New Guinea. It calls on all of us to increase our leadership and to work together to prevent newinfections and to care for our brothers and sisters who are living with or affected by HIV. In particular,ensuring that our young men and women are given correct and complete information is essential. Thus, wemust talk openly and honestly with them about relationships, sex and sexuality, and the behaviours that putthem at risk and those that will protect them from HIV. We must address attitudes and beliefs that areputting Papua New Guineans at risk. In particular, we have to address gender inequities and fight violenceand rape as a part of the response to HIV. We must also face the reality that some young people will havesex and ensure that they have access to the means of protection. We must also fight stigma anddiscrimination against people living with HIV and their families, and promote values of unconditional love,care and tolerance, which are the foundation of our Christian faith and Melanesian way of life.9 HIV and AIDS Policy HIV and for the AIDS National Policy for Education the National System Education 2012-2016 System of Papua New Guinea9