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25 Mar 2008 13:25:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Charles Mangwiro MAPUTO, March 25 (Reuters) - More than one-sixth of Mozambique's 9,000
teachers are 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 is key to the poor southern African nation's economic
development. "We are losing 17 percent 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 say more than 16 percent of the 20 million Mozambicans
between the ages of 14 and 49 -- generally the most economically
productive -- are infected with HIV, and an estimated 500 new infections
occur 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.
Teachers play a major role in the economic development of this country",
he said. Despite its limited skilled labour force, Mozambique's economy has
boomed in recent years, spurred by a rise in foreign investment and
development aid, and GDP growth is projected to hit 8 percent this year
after reaching 7.5 percent 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, is struggling to
raise the $150 million a year it needs to rebuild its dilapidated
education infrastructure, neglected during the 17-year post-independence
civil war that ended in 1992. Very few of those needing anti-retroviral drugs in the former Portuguese
colony have access to the life-saving treatment, though there are plans
to set up a factory to produce the drugs in Mozambique. (Editing by
Muchena Zigomo and Tim Pearce)
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