Government Launches School Safety Intervention Initiative
The Department of Basic Education has started embarking on a nationwide school safety intervention initiative. The initiative is aimed at addressing school violence, bullying, drug use, and social ills, which directly impact educational outcomes.
The Basic Education Department announced that they partnered with sister departments, key stakeholders, and social partners for the school safety intervention initiative, in an effort to stop bullying involving learners, school staff members, and sometimes community members.
The “School Safety – Violence, and Bullying Prevention Initiatives” strive to mobilise learners, teachers, parents, and key stakeholders in promoting a safe learning environment for good quality education and motivate community involvement in schools to prevent incidents of bullying and violence.
Bullying can have a direct impact on educational outcomes as it causes depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, suicide, absenteeism, low academic performance, and school dropout.
The initiative requires engagement with the School Management Teams and SGBs on reporting and taking proactive steps to handle disruptive incidents if and when they arise.
This programme hopes to emphasize the importance, of playing an active role in school activities, to parents. The programme will also aim to equip the parents with tools for effective monitoring and management of bullying.
The government departments and key stakeholders have joined to provide services such as health screening, psycho-social, career guidance, and ID registration for learners who are eligible.
