To obtain different points of view, principals, teachers and students were interviewed separately. Semi-structured open interviews allowed new topics to come up during the interviews. Eight principals and eight life skills or counselling teachers were interviewed. The number of students interviewed varied from school to school, ranging from 3 to 10 and totalling 55.

The results of the study were published in the booklet If you love this country, you will do something about HIV/AIDS. A snapshot survey of HIV/Aids education in eight Western Cape high schools. The study does not claim to be representative or comprehensive; it was designed to collect qualitative data that was unavailable before. We called it a "snapshot survey" because we, so to speak, took snapshots of the good practices in selected schools. The main best practices identified by the eight schools were:

The most interesting findings were that both teachers and students were eager to see integration of HIV/AIDS into learning areas other than life skills and that out-of-class learning venues, such as sexuality camps and school health centres, were perceived as successful.

Integration of HIV/AIDS into different learning areas

Life skills education is included in the new South African curriculum, Outcomes Based Education (OBE), and already starts in grade 1. Issues around HIV/AIDS are integrated and play a predominant role in the syllabus. OBE does not prescribe content but leaves room for the teacher to integrate topics relevant to the students.

For example, in Cape Town, the grade 8/9 maths curriculum deals with the interpretation of graphics, expressing data through graphs and basic statistics. Mathematics therefore provides a good opportunity to examine data on the development of HIV/AIDS over the last years and to compare prevalence rates at the national and international levels. In Soweto, teachers integrated teaching material on HIV/AIDS provided by the Science Education Centre into grade 11/12 biology workshops for 16-17 year-old students. Workshops about HIV/AIDS were held and the knowledge gained was subsequently tested in the classroom; the workshops were considered very successful.

The science curriculum for grades 8/9 emphasizes scientific thinking and "hands on" work. In this context, there are many possibilities to investigate condoms in a scientific way, e.g., by examining safety by leaving a condom blown-up for a couple of days. At several schools, teachers piloted activities and materials about the immune system; acceptance was high, with both teachers and students greatly enjoying the lessons using the new materials.

Integrating HIV/AIDS into learning areas across the curriculum is advantageous: HIV/AIDS becomes an everyday life issue that is no longer separated from the "normal" subjects such as science, mathematics and biology. The major challenge is how to introduce the teaching techniques that teachers need to use these new materials. South African teachers are rarely used to learner-centred teaching, which is essential for any lesson concerning HIV/AIDS or related issues such as life orientation and behaviour change. It is therefore highly recommended that teacher development focus on teaching skills to develop learner-centred lessons. When teaching these lessons, teachers have no chance to fall back on old teacher-centred habits, because these lessons simply did not exist before.

Out-of-class programmes

In co-operation with external service providers, school health centres were set up in some schools. The school provided a room and service providers trained students to become peer educators, who could give other students educational materials and other specific information. These peer education projects were perceived to be effective. The most interesting and promising aspect was that although boys did not attend the school health centres as much as girls, boys consult male peer educators. For example, one male peer educator said that boys very rarely asked him for advice in school, but they visited him at home in the afternoon to ask questions about sexuality and HIV/AIDS.

Experience with sexuality camps for grade 10 female students was also good. Girls are sent to these camps for a couple of days where they can learn and speak about sexuality with external staff. All girls enjoyed this time very much and reported gaining a lot. They felt it was important to discuss sexual issues without interference from parents and teachers since this made it possible for them to speak out freely without fearing consequences. No doubt it would make a tremendous difference to develop and implement sexuality camps for boys, too.

A crucial role to play for schools

Schools in South Africa have understood that they have a crucial role to play in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The principals, teachers and students interviewed are very aware of the disease and have already started to face the pandemic using various strategies that work well in their respective environments. However, it should be noted that a best practice at one school will not necessarily be the same at another school since success very much depends on a school's health-promoting environment. The following conclusions can be drawn: