By Fatmata B. J. Samura
The Institute for Development (IFD) in Partnership with UK International Development And Leh Wi Lan Has On Tuesday March 26th held a Research Dissemination, addressing violence And Inclusion In Schools at the New Brookfields HotelThe program remarks were made by the chairpersons and a representative from MBSSE. Speaking at the event, Madam Rebecca Freeman and advocate for children with disabilities and Osman Kamara Director Research and Curriculum Development MBSSE said everyone has a responsibility to know what they do not know, emphasising the importance of addressing violence and encouraging Inclusion in school.
In his statement, Mr Emmanuel J. Marrah Director of Research, Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary schools Education said his Ministry is part of this research and as a Ministry they are very happy because this is one of their foreguiding’s and they have a policy called comprehensive safety for schools and they also have the radical Inclusion that caters for all form of vulnerable people.
He continued to say that they came to the event to know what the researchers have leant and they are going to take the report to the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education.
Mr John Mark, Researcher and Curriculum Development officer from Leh Wi Lan said Leh Wi Lan is one of the principal bodies of the program which was organized that day. He expressed thanks and appreciation to IFD for organizing such a program. He said he was part of the research in the aspect of disseminating the findings of this research.
He stated that Sierra Leone is a country that writes lots of policies, but they are implemented. If you go to Ministries you see lots of policy reports been put on shelves. You collect data to inform decisions and make reports for people to change perception of people, but here in Sierra Leone we do all the good work but we don’t implement them, he said.
The key stakeholders Clare Castillejo lead Researcher, Richard Pambu and Henrietta Koroma made presentations on the findings of gender based violence during their research. Richard Pambu explained the study on Inclusion, perceptions of violence and SRH education.
The research was aimed at generating evidence on problems of violence in school and developing recommendations regarding delivery of SRH education. Clare Castillejo the lead researcher made her presentation on violence propagated by teachers, of which corporal punishment remains widespread and accepted, but with evidence of shifting behaviours and attitudes.
According to Castillejo, Violence against marginalised students, such as students with disabilities faced high levels of bullying by peers, mostly verbal but sometimes physical reflection. Students who are pregnant face verbal bullying by peers and teachers. Poorest student are subjected to verbal bullying by peers and teachers.
Henrietta Koroma talked on violence among students using school buses, saying that school boys harass school girls on school buses and if a boy harasses a girl in the bus and the girl wants to shout or report him they have sharp objects that they use to threaten the girl.
