Ombudmanr’s Report: Violence Frequent Among/Against Children at School

“The cases of psychological and physical violence among and against children, especially by the persons who have active communication with them, are frequent; bullying is also a common form of communication,” the recent report of the Public Defender of Georgia, Ucha Nanuashvili reads.

Nanuashvili’s report, published on October 17, is based on the survey, conducted in general educational institutions by the Center for Child’s Rights of the Public Defender's Office within the framework of the UNICEF-supported project - Strengthening the Center for Child’s Rights of the Public Defender's Office. 

The monitoring, conducted during the academic year of 2016-2017, covered 109 general educational institutions throughout Georgia, including 98 public schools, 5 private schools and 6 boarding schools.

“Students’ awareness of their rights or different forms of violence, as well as the competence of responsible persons in response mechanisms to various forms of violence against children, is low. Schools do not have a common policy against violence,’ the report reads.

The survey revealed that 13.2% of schoolchildren and 4% of school staff do not regard beating as child abuse, 37% of schoolchildren and 12.7% of school staff do not regard hitting as child abuse, 42.5% of schoolchildren and 13.9% of school staff do not think that ear twitching is not violence. The monitoring showed similar attitudes to other forms of violence, including psychological violence.

“Yelling was named by most of the students as a form of communication with them. 20.30% of schoolchildren reported of yelling by school resource officers, 47.10% said yelling was used as a form of communication by school administration, 61.50% named class teachers and 78.80% named other teachers. 25% of school staff do not consider yelling as violence,” Ombudsman stated.

Nanuashvili stressed the monitoring showed that school staff members are not well aware of the response mechanisms to child abuse.

“Given the above and all other challenges discovered by the monitoring, the Public Defender urges the state to develop and pursue coordinated policy for the prevention of violence in the educational institutions and to improve response mechanisms,” the Public defender said.

Deputy Public Defender, Ekaterine Skhiladze said that the first step should be raising awareness of pupils about their rights and about violence.

“The Ministry of Education conducts a lot of trainings for teachers. Unfortunately, the monitoring results show that the problem of violence at schools is still high and alarming. If the teachers’ trainings and monitoring do not have systemic nature, this problem cannot be solved in the short period,” she added.

Georgia’s Deputy Education Minister, Lia Gigauri also made a comment on the monitoring results, adding violence is reduced in recent years due to the presence of resource officers at schools, who are responsible for order and safety at the educational institutions.

Gigauri added that the teachers who abuse children will be dismissed from education system.

By Thea Morrison

Photo source: Sputnik-Georgia