ARE SCHOOLS SAFE HAVENS FOR CHILDREN?

COUNTRYLOCATIONSAMPLE POPULATION ANDMETHODMalawi Urban and rural Document review, open-endedinterviews, and semistructuredfocus groups with35 key stakeholders andorganizationsMalawi Machinga District 952 students participated inparticipatory action andlearning workshops; focusgroup discussions with morethan 2,000 participants; 370key informant interviewsSTUDY CITEDDevTech(2004b)CERT andDevTech(2008)RELEVANT FINDINGSschool.• One fifth (19 percent) of children had encountered problemson the way to school.• Psychological abuse took place in the home, community,and school, and was inflicted by parents, communitymembers, classmates, and teachers. It caused girls to bedemoralized and undermined their confidence to do well inschool. Verbal sexual abuse by male peers and teachersalso demoralized girls.• Bullying was the primary form of psychological abuseaffecting boys.• Sexual abuse took place in school, with girls being raped orhaving their breasts and buttocks touched by peers.• Girls were raped and coerced into sex with teachers throughthreats or humiliation.• Boys experienced physical abuse in the form of fights.• Both boys and girls were subjected to corporal punishmentby teachers.• The concept of gender-based violence was not clearlyunderstood.• Boys and girls were victims as well as perpetrators ofgender-based violence.• Incidents of violence occurred in the classroom, on schoolgrounds, and on the way to and from school.• The main perpetrators of gender-based violence at schoolwere boys and teachers, with certain groups of communitymembers responsible for abuses that occurred whilestudents traveled to and from school.• Boys and girls both indicated that students drop out due to afear of SRGBV. Boys and girls fear punishments and girlsalso fear attempted rape and other consequences fromrefusing teachers’ propositions.• Students identified the most common form of abuse inschools as corporal punishment. This included caning,whipping, painful touching, and assigning harsh physicallabor (for example, digging a hole for a latrine or uprooting aARE SCHOOLS SAFE HAVENS FOR CHILDREN?EXAMINING SCHOOL-RELATED GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE29