Durban - One in five college students and staff members believes that a woman loses a man’s respect if she asks him to use a condom, and one in three believes that asking their partner to get tested for a sexually transmitted infection would make him or her suspect them of cheating.
This is according to the first survey on the HIV/Aids-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of first-year students and staff at South African technical and vocational education and training colleges.
The research was released on Thursday by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, at the seventh annual SA Aids Conference in Durban.
While elements of the survey were “distressing”, Nzimande said he was excited that it had paved the way to take the fight against HIV/Aids to the college community.
“To put it bluntly, what is the point of educating our youngsters if they are going to die. They are very important human resources,” Nzimande said.
Historically, the health and wellness of college students and staff had received little attention, and the survey had meant extending the Higher Education and Training Aids Programme to include colleges.
Through the programme, empowerment initiatives for men and women were being introduced at colleges, as well as the First Things First campaign, which provided for HIV testing and counselling.
The research released on Thursday (undertaken by the Human Sciences Research Council) saw data collected from nearly 7 000 first-year students and 1 000 members of staff (academic and administrative).
Nearly 80% of the student respondents were between 18 and 24 years old.
Delegates attending the conference were shocked to hear that 10% of students and 27% of staff said that they had never heard of an illness called Aids, and that 16% of the combined sample believed Aids could be cured.
A substantial proportion of students and staff expressed negative attitudes to condom use - 40.8% of students and 43% of staff said condoms felt unnatural.
Yogan Pillay, the deputy-director-general of the national Health Department, expressed his concern that the level of poverty of the students made them especially vulnerable to infection.
Nearly a third of students said they did not have money for basics such as food and clothes.
Pillay also described as a “deadly cocktail” the number of students who were single and did not have steady partners.
The Mercury