By Ragan M. Conteh

 The Institute for Development (IFD) in partnership with UK International Development and ‘Leh Wi Lan’ has  held a research on addressing violence occurences in schools.

The program happened on Tuesday March 26th at the New Brookfields Hotel in Freetown.

Speaking at the event, Madam Rebecca Freeman, an advocate for children with disabilities and Osman Kamara director of Research and Curriculum Development MBSSE said everyone has a responsibility to know what they  do not know. They emphasised the importance of addressing violence and in encouraging the inclusion of schools.

In his statement, Mr Emmanuel J.Marrah Director of Research, Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Schools Education  said his ministry was part of the research and they were very happy.

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 said.

He continued to say that they came to the event to know what the researchers had 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 on 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 the research.

He stated that Sierra Leone is a country that implements several policies but these policies are not implemented. If you go to several ministries you see lots of policy reports being put in the shelves, he said.

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 on aspects of 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 perpetrated by teachers, of which corporal punishment remains widespread and accepted ,but has now accounted for shifting behaviours and attitudes.

According to Castillejo, he said violence against marginalised students, such as students with disabilities faced high levels of bullying by peers, and are mostly verbal.

Students who are pregnant face verbal bullying by peers and teachers, he said.  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 ofetn harass school girls on school buses and if a boy harasses a girl in the bus and the girl wants to shout or to report him the boys do have sharp objects that they use to threaten the girl.