PIP: The social impact of HIV/AIDS will be devastating in many countries of the world in the health sector, education and training, agriculture, private enterprise, public service, defense, and governance. The impact of HIV/AIDS on education as a system means that fewer children are born in a society where HIV/AIDS is present, and most children infected perinatally will die before reaching school age. Those infected with HIV or ill with AIDS may not be able to enter or continue in school. One worst-case scenario for an African country predicts that in 2020, because of the impact of AIDS, there will be 22% fewer children in school at the primary level and 14% fewer at the secondary level. A recent worst-case scenario in Africa predicts the death from AIDS of 27,000 primary school teachers by the year 2020. This, coupled with fewer pupils and smaller financial support from communities, may eventually lead to abandoned schools. Various kinds of formal discrimination and informal harassment of affected pupils and teachers will emerge. This population will be more frequently not enrolled in school, working at home, or in productive jobs; orphaned, perhaps physically abandoned. Many children will leave school and they will need quickly to learn vocational skills (home economics, agriculture, handicrafts). The moral dimensions of HIV/AIDS will require that the education system place a stronger focus on ethical issues. Educational planners will need to develop policies regarding sex education, job discrimination, and human rights violations, including screening, confidentiality about HIV status, and employment protection. The most productive generation of some societies (planners, managers, teachers, business people, farmers, factory workers, miners, merchants) will be particularly affected. The response of education systems will be an important determinant of how societies recover from the impact of HIV and AIDS.