This study examines the knowledge of HIV/AIDS, attitudes towards risky sexual behaviour and perceived behavioural control among students in Botswana. Data were collected from 445 students randomly selected from the University of Botswana and Boitekanelo College. Hundred and seventy three males and 272 females participated in the study. The study established that although more than 90% of students correctly identified routes of HIV transmission, misconceptions regarding HIV/AIDS still exist. This includes the belief that people can be infected with HIV because of witchcraft and that only people who have sex with gay or homosexual partners can be infected with HIV. Majority of students were aware of various sexual risks. However, the percentage of students who indicated that "it is difficult to ask my partner to use a condom" was still relatively high (13.5%) based on the assumption that students are supposed to know the consequences of sexual risky behaviour. It was also found that male students were 3.48 times more likely to negotiate sex than their female counterparts (OR = 3.48, 95% CI: 1.09 − 11.13) and students who were 18 years and below were more likely to negotiate sex than students above 18 years of age (OR = 2.78, 95% CI: 1.42 − 18.32). Christians are four times less likely to negotiate sex compared to non-Christians (OR = 0.219, 95% CI: 0.095 − 0.506).The theory of planned behaviour advances the proposition that people's behaviour is strongly influenced by their confidence in their ability to perform it. This study is interested in the ability of college students to discuss sexual matters and refuse or negotiate a sexual relationship and how this ability is influenced by the knowledge and attitudes towards sexual risk behaviour. Based on the data collected among students from two institutions of higher learning in Botswana, it was found that that the majority of college students participating in the study had the ability to negotiate sexual relationships. Of concern, however, was the finding that a good number of students were still exposing themselves to risky sexual behaviour including the inability to negotiate pressure to have sex or for engage in sex without using condoms.More than 80% of students were comfortable discussing HIV or sex and sexuality with their friends, boyfriends/girlfriends or partners but uncomfortable discussing the same issues with their parents.
Scholarly and institutional research on early childhood education is not a new phenomenon, but what is perhaps limited is extant literature that particularly focuses on revisiting current practices and their "dialogue" with the ever-changing environment that prevails especially in an African setting. The practices of providers of early childhood education are either simply "business opportunity seeking" responses to the new consumption patterns of more affluent parent (or guardian) or current global trends of child education preparation. There has been a phenomenal increase in the number of early child centres in recent years but with fragmented structures. However whether or not this will reduce possibilities of tensions between the macro and micro aspects of this kind of co-evolution is one of the questions this article seeks to address. It also investigates the fit between the internal structure and processes of early childhood centers and the external environment (national framework), focusing on the challenges and prospects of early childhood education. Buoyed by the Fit/Congruence model of organizational analysis, the paper is based on findings from a content analysis of media reports and desk review of policy documents from purposively selected centres based in Gaborone. The data is analyzed using a combination of the pattern model and analytic comparison methods. In Botswana, one of the observed missing links is the absence of national framework guiding the structure and content of early childhood curriculum and instruction. It concludes that while the approaches used in these centres are relatively not similar they may be complementary particularly to the extent to which they prepare the children for an exclusionary education system in a country whose long-term vision is ironically to achieve an equitable and quality education for all. Institutional initiatives at national level have been limited and unevenly distributed with wide differences in the quality of services and lack of coherence and coordination at micro-level.
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