Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

010CHAPTER 32Education for All Global Monitoring ReportBecoming anorphan due toAIDS can inflictsevere damageon educationprospects10. While access toantiretroviral therapy hasrisen extremely rapidlyover the past few years,increasing the numberof HIV-positive childrenin school and survivalrates among theircaregivers, in mostcountries the scale-uprate is insufficientto reach universalaccess goals by 2010(UNAIDS, 2009).Table 3.5: Education indicators by disability status of head of household and wealth, Philippines and UgandaPhilippinesUgandaYearAverage7- to 16-year-olds who havenever been to school (%)Disabled*2000 3 21 28 6 30 442002 10 19 23 26 39 49* ‘Disabled’ refers to self-reported disability status of the household head.Source: UNESCO-DME (2009).Having disabilities is not the only situation affectingchildren’s educational opportunities. Children whoseparents have disabilities often face tensions betweenschooling and care demands at home. Theseindirect consequences of adults with disabilities,known as the ‘cascade effect’, are often very severe.National census data provide an insight into thescale of the problem. Having a poor parent with adisability increases the likelihood of 7- to 16-yearoldsnever having been to school by twenty-fivepercentage points in the Philippines and thirteenpoints in Uganda – a reminder of how poverty,disability and education interact (Table 3.5).People affected by HIV and AIDSHIV and AIDS are principally a global healthcrisis, but one with profound and wide-rangingconsequences for education. As well asthreatening lives, keeping children out of schooland compromising learning, HIV and AIDSreinforce wider problems arising from povertyand social discrimination, such as economicpressure, orphanhood and stigmatization.An estimated 33 million people were living withHIV in 2007, two-thirds of them in sub-SaharanAfrica. The region is home to 90% of the 2 millionchildren below age 15 living with HIV. Mostcontracted the virus during pregnancy, birth orbreastfeeding – easily preventable forms of HIVtransmission (UNAIDS et al., 2008). Withoutantiretroviral therapy, about 90% of these childrendie before reaching school age (Pridmore, 2008).Those who live may suffer associated problems,such as respiratory infections, malnutrition anddiarrhoeal disease, more often and more severelythan do healthy children, affecting their capacityto attend school and learn. 10Some of the most devastating effects of HIV andAIDS on education are not reflected in school data,17- to 22-year-olds with fewerthan 4 years of education (%)Disabled* frompoorest 20% Average Disabled*Disabled* frompoorest 20%for an obvious reason: many victims do not reachschool age. Around 270,000 children under 14 diedof AIDS-related illnesses in 2007 (UNAIDS et al.,2008). In many countries HIV and AIDS arereinforcing deep gender disparities in education.In high-prevalence southern African countries,such as Malawi, South Africa and Swaziland, HIVinfection rates for girls and young women aged 15to 24 are 1.8 times to 5.5 times the rates for men(Stirling et al., 2008). These disparities can harmgirls’ prospects of completing primary school andmaking the transition to secondary school.With limited savings and assets, and dependent onphysical labour for income, the poorest householdsare the least equipped to cope with the health costsof HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS et al., 2008). Many mustsacrifice spending in other priority areas, includingeducation. Research in Cambodia found that, topay for health care, two-thirds of families affectedby HIV and AIDS reported spending less onchildren’s needs, including nutrition – potentiallycompromising children’s capacity for learning(Alkenbrack et al., 2004). Household members’ill health can also compromise education byincreasing demand for child labour (Pridmore, 2008).Becoming an orphan due to AIDS can inflict severedamage on education prospects. Some 15 millionchildren under 18 have lost one or both parents toAIDS. Evidence from fifty-six countries with recenthousehold survey data indicated that orphans whohad lost both parents were 12% less likely to attendschool than non-orphans, on average (UNAIDS et al.,2008). Behind this figure are marked variations,some influenced strongly by the gender of thedeceased parent. In some sub-Saharan Africancountries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi andthe United Republic of Tanzania, children whosemothers died were more likely to move to anotherhousehold and less likely to stay in school (Beegleet al., 2009; Evans and Miguel, 2007; Himaz, 2009;World Bank, 2007c). While the death of a father184