The problem of AIDS in sub-Sahara Africa may appear virtually insurmountable, but according to an Irish-born Jesuit professor, there is a key to the demise of the deadly disease - education.

Many African countries are being ravaged by the spread of HIV/AIDS. Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia are among the worst-affected states. In Botswana, more than one-third of 15- to 49-year-olds (those who are also the most economically active) are HIVpositive. In Zimbabwe, it's one in four. South Africa and Zambia are marginally better - one-fifth of their populations are affected by the virus. According to the University of Zambia's professor of education, Michael Kelly SJ, education has a major role to play in combating the spread of the HIV virus in Africa.

"When the disease first began to take hold in Africa, it was the highly educated people who had the highest levels of HIV infection," Kelly explains. "That's changing. High levels of infection are not occurring to the same extent among the highly educated groups. The more education you give, the more you enable people to protect themselves. I don't just mean reproductive health education. It's general education that's important and the liberation it brings to women and the understanding it brings to men." African women, Kelly says, are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. They have little control over their lives, either economically or sexually. They go along with whatever their partners suggest. "They can't take protections and they can't deny their partners sex. This is the status quo. The question is how can you change it? There's only one mechanism - good education," he says. Education also provides one of the most certain routes out of poverty, argues Kelly, who comes from Tullamore, Co Offaly. However, while education is compulsory in a number of African states, access is a major problem. "In the majority of countries, the facilities are inadequate. You have inadequate teachers and inadequate teaching resources. When there's an access problem, the ones who are excluded are the poor and girls. The worst possible position is to be a poor girl." Ireland, Kelly says, should push as hard as it can to keep the issue of good-quality education for every African child at the top of the international agenda. "Ireland is on the UN Security Council and AIDS is on its agenda," he says. "Ireland can speak out about the HIV issue and about education as one of its longterm solutions."

Irish third-level institutions, meanwhile, could work with African colleges to improve teacher education. They could also undertake joint scientific programmes for the development of vaccines. "Already St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, is assisting a teacher-training college in Zambia," he says. Oxford and Nairobi universities are currently co-operating to develop a vaccine to boost the immune system. "There's no reason why it should be confined to Oxford. There's a great lack of epidemiological information in Africa. Institutions could work together to assist in the development of information systems which are needed in the planning and control of HIV." At school level, in Africa, the HIV virus makes relatively little impact, he notes. Children who are infected in the womb rarely make it to school. If children become infected while they are still at school, it's unlikely that they will develop full-blown AIDS until they reach 16 to 18 years of age - by when they have left school.

In recent times, Kelly - who was in Dublin to speak at an education forum organised by Ireland Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs - has been involved in projects which have analysed and documented the potential of HIV/AIDS to undermine education systems in Africa. Studies show that the impact of HIV on universities is slow. "It is having an impact," he says, "but the universities are carrying on as if it's business as usual. The universities are losing students, but the impact on staff is probably greater." The University of Western Cape, for example, has a student enrolment of 9,000, but is losing 1,800 students annually. Although this loss is largely due to financial reasons, it is AIDSrelated. Students drop out because their families can no longer afford to keep them at university when family members, or even the main breadwinner, contracts AIDS.

During the 1990s, Kelly says, the University of Zambia was losing up to 40 members of staff (including non-academics) annually. "You see colleagues ailing. You know they are sick. Their attendance becomes erratic. Other people try to cover courses and programmes for them, but it's not satisfactory because they are specialists in their particular areas."

In Zambia, Kelly says, there is strong evidence of a decline in the incidence of HIV among 15-19-year-olds. The decline is particularly marked in girls who have received secondary, or higher, education. "The Programme for the Advancement of Girls' Education" has had a huge impact, Kelly believes. This Zambian government programme, which has been running since the mid-1990s, is supported by UNICEF and donor agencies, including Ireland Aid. "It's a very significant group," he remarks, "and it could indicate that the incidence of HIV/ AIDS may be on the wane in Zambia." Nonetheless, an enormous problem remains. Already, more than 30 million children have been orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa - at least half of them because of AIDS. "The really basic issue is what kind of adults they will grow up to be," Kelly says. "We need to ensure that all educational programmes compensate orphans for what they have lost in life."