Hall (2003:34) asserts that in the past decade, South Africa has experienced exponential growth in the prevalence of HIV infections. The scale of the HIV epidemic is enormous, and the effects of HIV/AIDS-related deaths are felt by families, communities, and institutions. However, recognition of the unfolding tragedy has been slow to gain momentum, partly due to the stigma attached to HIV infection, denial at personal and community level, and the confused approach of government towards the pandemic. Although the exact number of South Africans infected with HIV is contested by various groups and government, this seems hardly relevant when one considers that it was estimated that only 40,000 HIV-positive South Africans were receiving antiretroviral treatment and that the vast majority of them would develop and succumb to AIDS in a number of years (Quinlan & Willan 2005:241).
AIDS has crippled Africa, the most affected continent in the world, with Eastern and Southern Africa being the most severely affected. South Africa is the country with the highest rate of new infections per day, namely 1,600 new cases per day, with an estimated total of 4 million cases in 2000, of whom 258,000 were school leavers (Van Rooyen & Hartell 2002:145). AIDS is not only a medical disease, but also a social disease. According to UNAIDS (2011) approximately 5.6 million of South Africans are HIV-positive. As a result of the rapid increase of infections in the mid- 1990s and the concomitant increase in HIV/AIDS-related deaths, it is estimated that 13% of children in South Africa have lost one or both parents to AIDS (Van Wyk & Lemmer 2007:301).
Mothers who are HIV-positive tend to “silence” their own needs and first attend to the needs of their children and others (Potterton, Stewart & Cooper 2007:210). This includes their physical and health needs, as well as their psychological needs. This
practice of “silencing self” ultimately places an increased burden on the mothers and means that they do not readily seek the help they need, even when it is available. Mothers who experience difficulty in caring for their children due to ill health experience high levels of chronic sorrow.
The impact of AIDS on families and households can be disastrous. AIDS primarily affects adults of working age who have dependants and also confronts the already vulnerable young with the demands of caring for the seriously ill and with the trauma of death. In most societies, parents prepare their children for school, guiding and teaching them and creating a pedagogical climate that is conducive to children’s learning and good conduct at school (Van Wyk & Lemmer 2007:301; Epstein & Sanders 2000:286). However, when parents are ill or diseased, this function is lost to families, as the parents become uninvolved in the education of their children due to their poor health.
The effect of the pandemic on millions of children in South Africa has been disastrous. Many parents, grandparents, and caregivers in the extended family have died as a result of the illness. Children as young as 3 years sometimes live on the streets, because they have no one to take care of them (Prinsloo 2005:31). Often grandmothers or remaining family members take over the full-time care of young grandchildren. This is also the grim reality in Port Elizabeth, evident from the alarming escalation in the number of HIV infections treated at the Clinic alone. More than 1,000 adults and more than 100 children receive antiretroviral treatment at this clinic (Williams 2011:1). Friend and Cook (2003:218) express concern that HIV/AIDS can have a detrimental impact on learning, because extended family members often have little time or energy to be involved in the schooling of their children at home or at school. As a result, children are left with no support and care for their education from family members.
Society, caught in the grip of this disaster, must look to its schools to curb the spread of the HIV virus and take up the struggle for survival against this insidious, inaudible, and invisible enemy (Van Rooyen & Hartell 2002:146). Schools must produce potential people who will be able to prove themselves as dependable adults who can meet the challenge of a rapidly changing world. It is therefore important to ensure
that schools equip the community to curb the spread of this disease, so that parents can take up the responsible role of educating their children. In order to be better equipped to face the additional responsibilities brought on by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, teachers need to understand how the pandemic affects the teaching service, classrooms, teachers, learners and the quality of education, and school governing bodies (SGBs) and management. In the light of the aforementioned, schools have a responsibility to give guidance to the affected family members, so that they can become more involved in the schooling of their children.
Calitz, Fuglestad and Lillejord (2002:146-147) suggest that principals and teachers need to:
accept that, due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, some parents have already died and that parental guidance, sexual education, and the provision of support to these families to play a role in the schooling of their children are the responsibilities of the school;
acknowledge that learners, irrespective of their age, are at risk and that they often lack the knowledge, life skills, values, and norms based on established moral principles. It is also important to note that teachers must teach life skills education to learners, because it forms an important part of health promotion and prevention. Life skills education equips learners with necessary skills and knowledge;
understand that, in the absence of parental assistance, sexuality education is part of the duty of the school to better equip learners with knowledge concerning sexual activities and the consequences thereof;
take note that 258,000 learners were infected with HIV in 2000, some with full- blown AIDS, due to a lack of information regarding the illness. If learners are not informed about this illness, more and more learners will become infected by this dreadful disease;
accept that the highest infection rate occur in the 15-25 year age group, females in particular. This implies that more young people are infected, which will have a disastrous impact on our rainbow nation.
One of the most momentous consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South African society is child-headed households.