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Creating Safer Schools: Lessons Learned; Strategies for Action Session 1DiscussionThe overall discussion in this session added four further issues that made schools unsafefor children:a) Dr. Salim Vally of University of the Witwatersrand, said schools exist in thecontext of their environment. If children are not valued in the community then theirexperience in school will reflect that. If the community is a violent and unjust placethen the school will also grapple with the same issues. Social challenges such asthese translate into very violent ways of relating with children in schools.b) Rose Odoyo, Chief Executive Officer of ANPPCAN-Kenya, emphasizedthat basic reasons, such as poverty, should not be overlooked in our search tounderstand why children perform poorly. Children travel from far to reach schoolsand are coping with the broader consequences of poverty. The basic unmet needs offood, adequate shelter, or healthcare may put them at a considerable disadvantagewhen it comes to learning. “A hungry and an exhausted child cannot learn,” shesaid.c) Cheryl Frank, Executive Director of RAPCAN, emphasized the absence ofaccountability. There appears to be a collective apathy regarding the state of oureducation system because the lines of accountability are blurred. It is often difficultto ascertain who is responsible for ensuring the entire system or some portion of itfunctions, as it should. In the face of unwieldy bureaucracy it is easier to surrenderthan persist in asking the difficult questions. This is what contributes to fallingstandards and therefore results in unsafe schools for learners.d) Dr. Amandina Lihamba, Professor at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, addedthat unless there is collective ‘ownership’ of our schools, where each one of usclaims our share of the power and the responsibility in ensuring that the schoolfunctions as it should, the quality of education will suffer.The link between home and schoolRose Odoyo - Chief Executive Officer, ANPPCAN KenyaWhen we are trying to create safer schools, we must involvethe caregivers, the parents, and the community, so we arespeaking one language. If we are trying to sensitize teacherson the issue of positive discipline at school, and yet at home there isa lot of violence, the fathers are drunk and beating up the mothersin front of their children, there is quarreling, fighting, violence; thenit won’t work. At school, the teachers are trying to evolve non-violentdisciplinary methods, but at home, the child is beaten, or the child iswatching the father pounding the mother every evening. Thechild becomes confused. Children believe what they see, soparents have to set a good example to their children.