CASTRIES, St. Lucia – A regional educator has thrown her support behind calls for the distribution of condoms in schools as part of the battle against the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Virginia Albert-Poyotte, Coordinator of the Castries-based Education International, says the issue must be tackled since advocating that students exercise safe sex or abstinence could not be considered a guarantee. She said the responsibility to formulate policy on such issues is that of the authorities. “We are promoting abstinence for students as best as we can, but given the situation with our young people it is one thing to preach, but another thing to practice, and therefore we have to give them the alternative which is the use of condoms,” Albert-Poyette said. “But we need to make it clear that we do encourage students to stay away from sexual activity,” she noted. Albert-Poyotte said that at a just ended workshop in St. Lucia, representatives of 12 regional teacher trade unions did an evaluation of a five-year project on HIV/AIDS and education for all. She said it was discovered during the evaluation exercise that research and policy development are two critical tools which are yet to be employed in the fight against HIV/AIDS. “The unions have recognised the deficiency…and as a result of their evaluation they have decided that they need to give priority to research to ensure they have their data correct, which they will use to develop policy,” Albert-Poyette said. (CMC)
