It is generally perceived that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa is unrivalled worldwide. In fact, South Africa has the largest and most high profile HIV epidemic in the world. The principal objective of this investigation was to assess and examine gender differences in HIV/AIDS knowledge and awareness among rural and urban secondary school students in South Africa. The sample of the study comprised 250 (145 rural and 105 urban) high school students studying at a rural school in Mthatha and an urban school in Durban, South Africa. The rural participants’ age ranged from 16 to 22 years, with a mean of 19.6 years; whereas the age of urban participants ranged from 15 years to 19.6 years with a mean of 17.6 years. The respondents were administered an HIV/AIDS questionnaire of 15 statements/questions to which they were asked to tick the most correct response on the basis of the three options provided, which were "Yes", "No" "Do not know". Data analysis was based on chi-square contingency Table. Whether the responses were statistically significant was dependent on, whether the males and females chi-square means on gender differences were statistically significant. This study showed that there were statistically significant differences in the HIV/AIDS knowledge and awareness between male and female secondary school students. From this study we observed that overall, the female participants showed more HIV/AIDS knowledge and awareness than the male participants.

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