UNDERSTANDING ABUSE IN SCHOOLS
AMN / WEB DESK
Children deserve safe spaces to learn: An estimated 246 million girls and boys experience violence in and around schools every year, according to UNGEI. Girls are particularly vulnerable: The Global Women’s Institute finds that 60 million girls experience sexual assault going to school each year. In some countries girls are more likely to experience violence than become literate.
Intersectional barriers such as gender, race, age, disability status, and sexual identity often prevent children, especially from marginalized groups, from attending school altogether and increase the risk of violence for those who do attend. LGBTQI+ students experience school violence and bullying at a rate between three and five times higher than their non-LGBTQI+ peers, according to UNESCO.
This violence hinders learning: It can decrease self-esteem, reduce school attendance, lower academic achievement, and – like any form of violence – has negative impacts on children’s health and well-being. Despite knowing the wide-reaching impacts of school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), not enough is being done politically to create and implement education policies, and practically to prevent violence in schools. We need to amplify locally led solutions and hold governments and other decision-makers accountable for ensuring safe learning environments.
Youth and survivor advocates are key to preventing and responding to SRGBV: We must center those who are most affected, recognize students’ agency, and actively include them in decisions. Safe to Learn is a global initiative dedicated to ending violence in and through schools. It is inspired by the voices of young people around the world who know and experience that violence in schools stands as a huge obstacle to a better future.
We need more and better data. Policy- and decisionmakers, practitioners, and advocates need specific
quantitative and qualitative data that captures the prevalence and nature of SRGBV experienced by students, as well as drivers, including social norms and attitudes.
Existing research on SRGBV reveals that experiences and perpetration of violence vary widely based on gender, including important variations in the gendered dynamics of SRGBV across national contexts. Effective prevention requires understanding the unique and varied ways that gender roles, attitudes, and norms impact the prevalence and nature of violence in national and local contexts.
The Global Working Group to End SRGBV, convened by UNGEI and UNESCO, is a network of over 50 organizations from civil society, academia, the UN, and more committed to working collaboratively to understand and address the root causes and drivers of gender-based violence in and around schools.