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Bangkok, Thailand – A report released today documents a shocking level of violence at schools in Asia, with 7 out of 10 children reported experiencing violence at school. The report, Promoting Equality and Safety in Schools, looks at students’ experience of violence, including gender-based violence, in school, on the way to school, and at home, in Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Nepal.
Released by child rights NGO Plan International and International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), the report finds that students’ experience with violence is as high as 84% in Indonesia. Even the lowest incidence of violence – 43% in Pakistan – is still distressingly high. Overall, 7 out of 10 children report having experienced violence at school. Alarmingly, 43% of students report doing nothing when they saw an incidence of violence at school.
The report also includes specific recommendations, including school-based programming to change behaviour and attitudes regarding gender and violence, the establishment of services to enhance protection, and the enactment of policies and laws to prohibit and enforce regulations abolishing violence against children.
“Every child has the right to a quality education, free from violence and the threat of violence,” said Mark Pierce, Asia Regional Director of Plan International. “Plan is committed to working with educators, governments, parents, and students to enact the recommendations in this report, and start make sure that everyone know that violence has no place in schools, in the home, or anywhere in a child’s life”.
“This report is important as it documents the myriad ways and the extent to which children experience violence in the countries surveyed,” said Nandita Bhatla, Senior Technical Specialist at ICRW “It emphasises how gender-biased and violent places of learning actually are. Beyond corporal and other more recognised physical forms, children share how the use of humiliating, abusive language, and other emotional forms of violence makes school unsafe for them. Even worse, children do not have trusted adults to whom they can reach out. We found that key adults in their lives are dismissive of their experiences; or are perpetrators of violence themselves. The impact of this on a child’s psychological health is immense. The study points to the urgent need to go beyond an individual’s behaviour to find out how violence is encouraged and condoned in structures and processed of the education system. We are, in fact systematically grooming children into violent adults”
The report cites all incidences of violence, including physical and sexual abuse, emotional violence, and the threat of violence as endemic in these countries. Violence in schools is rife and is perpetrated by teachers, school staff, among students themselves, and from family members.
This violence is often exacerbated by gender stereotypes. Too often, these gender roles, which define girls as ‘shy’ and ‘obedient’ and boys as ‘dominant’ and ‘aggressive’ are normalised in students’ minds at an early age.
“In many cases, violence is so commonplace, it becomes normalised for children, who don’t report the behaviour, don’t regard it as unusual or wrong, and often become perpetrators themselves. This cycle needs to stop,” said Plan’s Mark Pierce.
Research was conducted by the ICRW in the five countries over 2013 and 2014. Promoting Equality and Safety in Schools is an innovative program designed to address gender equality and the prevalence of gender-based violence in and on the way to school in the Asia region.
The Report can be viewed at: plan-international.org/where-we-work/asia/latest-news/PEASS
