Teacher AIDS deaths raises concern

HIV/AIDS has contributed to the "drastic dwindling" of education standards, the Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) has said. In a recent interview with a local news service, Nation Online, TUM said about 1,200 teachers a year from both primary and secondary schools were dying of AIDS-related illnesses. TUM president Bernard Manda said: "HIV/AIDS has become very dangerous to the development of the country, and teachers have not been spared. The disease is killing several of them within a short time." Manda warned teachers to keep a social distance with pupils following reports of male teachers engaging in unprotected sex with girls, increasing the spread of HIV in schools in the process.