More than 500 teachers in Mpuma-langa are believed to have been booked off sick in the 2008/2009 fnancial year
because of HIV/Aids-related illnesses. However, only 98 of the 36 263 teach-ers employed by the provincial depart-
ment of education have disclosed that they are HIV positive.
The department recorded only 56 confrmed cases of teachers who retired or took long or short leave because the
disease was taking its toll.“These are the confrmed cases, but we have 504 unconfrmed cases where
we suspect that teachers stayed away from class due to illnesses linked to HIV,” said department spokesperson
Jasper Zwane.
“While the number appears to be small in comparison with the total number of teachers we employ, as a
department we are worried that more than 500 were constantly not in class.”Zwane said the number of absent
teachers was worrying because learn-ing and teaching were interrupted. Mpumalanga achieved a metric pass
rate of just 47.9% percent last year.

One primary school principal in the Bushbuckridge area, who asked not to be named, told African Eye News Ser-
vice about the diffculties principals ace due to HIV/Aids-related cases.
“It is quite nor-mal for teach-ers to take sick eave once in a while. But I have a teacher, who
has disclosed her status to school management, whose class is suffering be-ause at times
she disappears or two months at a time,” said he principal.He said this reated problems
or other teach-ers who had to fll n for her while she recovers at home.  “When we visit her at home, you can see she is recovering, but you know hat bringing her back to school too soon will cause a relapse,” he said.

“As a principal you wish she could retire and be replaced for the sake of teaching, but as a human being you
wonder whether forcing her to retire won’t lead to her early death,” he add-ed.
Zwane confrmed that principals were taking strain as HIV affected their schools’ teachers.
“Our principals are expected to perform excellently but are constantly dealing with absenteeism and
underperformance re-sulting from teachers’ illness. On the other hand, teachers are experiencing fnan-
cial problems due to their condition, which result in stress and underperformance,”
he said.
Zwane said healthy teachers were forced to deal with heavy workloads because of backlogs caused by their ill
counterparts’ absenteeism.

According to the CEO of the Mpuma-langa Council of Churches, ReverendLuke Dlamini, HIV has become a hu-
man rights issue that affects the over-all wellbeing of the community.
“As a church, we believe that the right of a teacher to wellbeing should be a priority, but we also believe that
the right of a child to learn should be considered,” said Dlamini.He said this could be done through
a support programme whereby unem-ployed teachers from the community volunteer at schools during the ab-
sence of a teacher who is bedridden by illness.
“We have to be practical because the virus has simultaneously produced ill teachers and depressed pupils. While
teaching is interrupted when ill teachers stay away from class, some of the
children at school are already orphans or they have parents who are dying athome,” he said.“It is only through the involvement of communities that we can beat this. If we get involved, then we can fnd
ways in which the government can help,” Dlamini said