Abstract
M.Ed.
This qualitative, phenomenological study focuses on the implementation of HIV/AIDS, sexuality and life skills education programmes in schools in the Brits District in the North West province. HIV/AIDS is taking on pandemic proportions world-wide. Southern Africa is the region with the highest growing rate of new infections and although various efforts have been made to educate people about the disease, behavioural change is seemingly not taking place. The National Department of Health and Education embarked on a joint initiative to introduce and implement Life Skills programmes in schools because they acknowledged the fact that information alone is not enough to change behaviour. Skills and attitudes also play an important role. The focus of the programme is the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has a particularly high incidence in youth. It is presented within the framework of sexuality education, in the learning area Life Orientation. In the Brits District in the North West province teachers were trained and equipped to implement the programme at their various schools. Reports indicate that despite the fact that implementation is required by National Education Policy it is not happening at schools. This study aims to enquire to the problems teachers might experience in implementation and to provide guidelines to help address these problems. In addition to exploring this aspect, this study also investigates the controversy regarding sexuality education and the characteristics of programmes that were successfully introduced globally.