The Chennai Corporation with the assistance of its Corporation AIDS Prevention and Control Society (CAPACS) is planning to create HIV-AIDS awareness among adolescent students of 281 Chennai Schools.
The focus will be more on ethical values, character building and health related awareness programmes, said an official of the civic body.
The civic body officials are yet to arrive at a consensus on the right age to start teaching students about HIV-AIDS. But, the training module for students would soon be designed to help students cope with moral and physical challenges faced during adolescence.
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The existing programmes of CAPACS focus more on college students and the civic body has so far been very cautious on conducting awareness programmes on HIV-AIDS for school students. The caution exercised by CAPACS has been on account of the lack of consensus among experts pertaining to HIV-AIDS education for school students.
At present, the awareness programmes for Chennai School students is restricted to cultural competitions. Red Ribbon clubs are constituted mainly by CAPACS in city colleges.
CAPACS is also planning more awareness programmes this year. Self-help groups in the city would also be roped in to participate in training programmes. Posters would be fixed in buses of all city routes to create awareness and educate people on HIV-AIDS, said an official.
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