THE Ministry of Education, with support from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and several other agencies will, today, begin a two-day workshop on HIV/AIDS.

It is aimed at finalising the State sector policy on the pandemic, school health and nutrition, and will be held at Regency Suites hotel, on Hadfield Street, Georgetown, a release said.

The seminar is also to conclude a strategic plan on that policy, based on a recently updated situation analysis, the release said.

It said the rapid situation analysis of the response by the education sector to HIV/AIDS in Guyana was undertaken between October and November this year, as part of ongoing efforts to support the call, by CARICOM Ministers of Education, for continuing dialogue and action towards accelerating measures to control the virus in the Caribbean.

The analysis sought to enable the development of a comprehensive school health, nutrition and HIV education programme to be part of the education sector forthcoming 2008 strategic plan,” the statement pointed out.

It added that the investigation sought to contribute to a stronger presence of Government’s multi-sectoral response to the deadly disease as outlined in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy 2007-2011.

A draft report on the study was presented, to the portfolio Minister, Mr. Shaik Baksh and senior education officials, by a World Bank team that visited Guyana last month, the statement said