HIV/AIDS education has been accepted with mixed feelings mainly because of its close
association with human sexuality. Notwithstanding the controversy, HIV/AIDS education
is being taught in schools in Namibia for more than ten years. Programmes such as
„My Future is My Choice‟ programme, Window of Hope programme and the Life Skills
subject all have one objective – to equip learners with information and skills to enable
them to make decisions in the era of HIV/AIDS.
One of the most profound themes to emerge in recent years is that HIV/AIDS is more
than a physical ailment. Its rate of transmission (or infection) is determined by the social
context. The notion that once people have been informed about HIV prevention, they
would use this information to make decisions that would protect them from infection has
been proven a fallacy. It is now understood that the social context of people must be considered
when they are being informed about HIV/AIDS to enable them to navigate
through unfavorable and outdated cultural practices that accelerate the spread of the virus.

Learners come from different social contexts and this needs to be considered when educating
them about HIV/AIDS. This research study investigated the role of parents in
HIV/AIDS education offered in schools during 2010, in Oshana Education Directorate.
Fourteen teachers from ten schools and twenty parents took part in the study. An implementation
evaluation research design was chosen to investigate the roles parents played
in complementing and supporting HIV/AIDS education
Findings of this study indicated that only 40% of the schools involved parents in the
HIV/AIDS programmes. This was confirmed when it also emerged that only 70% of parents
who took part in the study were aware of their children‟s involvement in HIV/AIDS
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programmes. Thirty percent were not aware that their children participated in HIV/AIDS
programmes at school. The study also revealed that all parents who took part in the study
are in agreement with the school teaching learners about HIV/AIDS. However, only fifty
percent (50%) of the parents in the study indicated that they were involved in the
school‟s HIV/AIDS programmes.
One of the most notable roles mentioned by parents were that they emphasized at home
on various topics that they were aware were being taught at schools, attending prize giving
ceremonies at schools to witness the giving of awards after learners completed the
programmes; some mentioned that they were also invited to give presentations on the
topic of HIV/AIDS. Seventy percent of parents mentioned that they were asked permission
for their children to take part in the programmes and some parents were specifically
requested to talk to learners at home about HIV/AIDS.
Overall the research discovered that the practice of involving parents in HIV/AIDS education
was not being practiced by all schools. Sixty percent of the schools did not involve
parents in the HIV/AIDS programmes.