The Impact of Hiv And Aids in Public Primary School Education and It's Implication on Planning Interventions in Rarieda Division, Rarieda District, Kenya

Abstract

In the past few decades, HIV and AIDS has become one of the major public health challenges worldwide. In Kenya, as in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, its impactis felt in all sectors. In the education sector, a number of children have been orphaned through the death of their parents as a result of HIV and AIDS pandemic making them more unlikely to enroll and remain in school due to lack of material support and parental care or because of the burden of taking care of sickparents and relatives. The study was conducted in Rarieda Division where the numberof children affected by the pandemic has risen in the past few years. The specificobjectives of the study were to examine the impact of HIV and AIDS on pupil's attendance, performance and completion of primary education; determine the impact of HIV and AIDS on gender disparity in primary education and assess how HIV and AIDS affects planning interventions in primary school education in the study area. The study design was cross-sectional descriptive research. Target populationswere pupils and teachers who were 18,715 and 600 respectively. The study utilized a sample size of 400 pupils who were interviewed to provide primary data. Quantitative data was collected from identifying participants through random sampling of schools within the division. For qualitative data collection, participants including teachers, education officers and caretakers of affected children were selected using purposive sampling technique and participated in Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Key Informant Interview (KII) and in-depth interview. Qualitative data were analyzed by creating themes and patterns then evaluating the usefulness of information to answer research questions. Quantitative data was analyzed through descriptive statistics such as mode; median standard and deviation of variables were conducted to establish relationships between variables. The study realized that HIV and AIDS have greatly reduced demand and supply of education and there is negative impact of which has interfered with primary education plan in the division. Although the study has shown that girls are at risk there are no measures that have been put in place to reduce the risks. In conclusion therefore, HIV pandemic has affected all the sectors of the economy, with much interference on planning of interventions in publicprimary schools education in the country. It is the recommendation of this study to put in place adequate intervention strategies to counter the effects of HIV and AIDS especially in primary education. This study finding will be useful to government agencies and non-governmental organizations when planning interventions in the era of HIV and AIDS.