AIDS compromising ability to deliver education

The education sector in Kenya is being threatened by the AIDS pandemic, according to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). Speaking at a local school, the assistant Minister of Education, Peter Odoyo, said the commission was losing many teachers to HIV/AIDS, which was undermining the sector's efforts and jeopardising the survival of the TSC. Odoyo commented that in one district alone, 100 teachers and 450 students died every year from HIV/AIDS. A District Education Officer told the East African Standard newspaper that teachers were increasingly becoming bed-ridden and incapable of delivering services, and "staff balancing" in his district had become difficult because many teachers were ill and could no longer work.