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Creating Safer Schools: Lessons Learned; Strategies for Action SessionSession13B. School and district level work -what do you do on the ground?The participants identified 10 guidingprinciples on how to create safer schools.1. Build consensus at many levels forstrategic partnerships. This includesthe media, parents, students,educators, district heads, relevantgovernment departments, civil society,faith-based organizations, andopinion leaders.2. Create public discourse to develop aholistic vision of a safe school.3. Work with the entire school to developa vision and mission on safety. Createcollective ownership and ensureparticipation by all, including students.4. Develop a plan of action involving allstakeholders that is SMART. (Specific,Measurable, Achievable, Realistic,and Time bound). It must include cost,so interventions are not beyond theimplementer’s capacity.5. Carry out capacity assessment andcapacity building. To create saferschools, the stakeholders need skillson roles and responsibilities to ensureimplementation.6. Roll out and take action withcontinuous monitoring.7. Evaluate. Learn lessons, measurechange and document positiveoutcomes.8. Reflect on the evaluation andincorporate lessons learnt andfeedback to the community and schoolprogram.9. Review and share at other levels,including getting the district involvedfor the sake of improving policy.10. Inform policy makers and servicedelivery agents through the district,through publications, and via allforms of media.Key take-away points:1. Creating a public discourse, a public desire, and publicawareness is crucial for normalizing safer schools.2. Policy alone is not enough. A just policy frameworksupported by practical mechanisms that ensurecollective monitoring and training to actualize policy areessential.3. The entire ecology of the education delivery must beaddressed when creating a safer school in order tocreate collective ownership and to ensure participationof everyone, including learners.20