In this booklet, Michael J. Kelly describes how, in many countries, the epidemic is undermining the education system in the same insidious way as it undermines the human body. Schools are struggling to survive under the strain of reduced teaching capacity, reduced community support, lack of adequate planning and reduced public funding. Despair has set in and many of those affected by the crisis and its daily ordeals are questioning the relevance of education at all. The booklet stresses the need for the education system to react quickly and to envisage new, creative solutions. Indeed, education has a vital role to play in combating the epidemic, both in coping withthe crisis here and now, and also because the ‘window of hope’, or least affected segment of the population, consists of school-aged children. As the author explains, there is no set formula for dealing with the situation. Each country, each community, each school will have to search for the strategies most suited to their case. However he does make apposite suggestions, and insists upon the necessity of breaking the silence that shrouds the issue. This booklet will be invaluable to teachers and planners alike, as well as to all those concerned by the question of HIV/AIDS.
