The educational component includes not only formal teaching on reproductive health but also "peer education", in which selected pupils act as information sources for their classmates; and this programme is supplemented by extracurricular activities such as clubs and health days. The chosen classroom teachers, the headmasters, the peer educators, and the educators of the peer educators all attend courses in participatory learning, and special teaching materials are distributed. There are stories for reading aloud and scripts for role-play: Shidaaccepts gifts to help pay for her schooling, becomes pregnant, and has a disastrous abortion; Riziki pesters Tatu for sex, she complains to Riziki's father, who punishes him; sensible Agnes refuses to make love without a condom; Saidi, a wayward lad, acquires an STD and has a fright. One of the themes is gender equality. 20 rural communities have been randomised to receive either the triple intervention or routine school lessons. All 20 receive syndromic management for STDs and family planning services.

HIV/AIDS, Children, Youth, Education, Health.

The classroom sessions are unlike what the schools are used to: teachers and children together establish the rules and there is much interaction. In health clinics the intervention consists of training in how to make young people feel welcome and at ease about confidentiality. Though a large part of the community is Roman Catholic, parental opposition to the trial has been negligible; the only major constraint is that condoms must not be displayed in the classroom. Access to free or affordable condoms is addressed through the other two components of the project.