According to Plan International, no less than 246 million children around the world experience some form of school violence. School violence can take many shapes, including physical, psychological and sexual violence and bullying and negatively affects children’s mental health as well as their academic performance. For this reason, UNESCO and its partners launched an international campaign "Safe to Learn", aiming to eradicate all forms of violence from schools. The campaign includes a global Call to Action which presents various steps to be taken by national and sub-national governments to combat school violence in their countries. One of the key action points is to strengthen prevention and response at the school level, mainly through the involvement of teachers.
UNESCO contracted PPMI to conduct research on how teachers perceive school violence as well as their abilities and attitudes to address this phenomenon. The study identified their teacher training needs in relation to combating school violence. The purpose of the study was therefore to gain an understanding of the role of the teacher in creating safe learning environments and the perceptions of the teachers on their role.
To conduct the study, PPMI carried out the following tasks:
- A review of existing literature and studies on how teachers perceive and address school violence
- A survey among teachers and teacher representatives across the world
- 20 focus groups with teachers in Nepal, Tanzania, Thailand and Zambia
- 10 analytical reports based on the global survey findings for Belarus, China, Ecuador, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Palestinean Territories, Qatar, Russia and Ukraine.
The final report and analytical reports will support UNESCO and its partners in strengthening their global efforts and the "Safe to Learn" campaign. This will allow all educational stakeholders to better cooperate with teachers in their efforts to counter school violence.