Press Centre 2006/04/19 (1): Child Protection

Turkey’s Ministry of National Education and UNICEF launch drive to eradicate violence from schools

Ankara, 19 April 2006 -- Launching the First Symposium on Violence and Schools: Taking Preventive Measures against Violence towards Children in and around the School Environment in İstanbul, Minister of National Education, Dr Hüseyin Çelik, stressed that:

Violence in any form should not be tolerated -- most especially in our schools. Each of us who is involved in the educational system -- school directors, principals, teachers and of course every single member of the student body, the children themselves, and their parents -- has a part to play in eradicating this scourge from our schools.

The solution isn’t to be found in militaristic security and heavy-handed discipline, however, but in reasoned discussion and argument. Every dispute, however great or small, has a peaceful and dignified solution when we are willing to sit down and talk about our differences. We should teach our children these values by example and help them to make their schools safer. The pen is mightier than the sword, after all, and society will reap the benefits of a younger generation educated in the arts of mutual understanding and peaceful dispute resolution both in the present and in the future.

Speaking about the various issues at the root of the problem, Çelik said:

There are numerous causes for violent behaviour so we should not simply focus on the resulting damage -- the effects of violence. Rather we should look into the causes and face the social realities of the issue where children are beaten by their parents at home and at school by their teachers -- adolescent protesters are beaten by the police at university. As conscripts in military service, it is not uncommon that young men are violently abused by superior officers seeking to instil discipline.

So it goes that a cycle of violence, beginning at home in the earliest years of childhood, is perpetuated throughout every stage of the individual’s life -- infant, adolescent and adult. Acts of physical and emotional violence are supported -- even celebrated -- daily in the media. From the cheap drama and action films that contaminate television to the sensational reportage of human catastrophe and bloody acts of aggression we see in the newspapers and the outrageous excesses of violent computer games that absorb the impressionable minds of even our youngest children, the issue permeates our lives.

When we talk about prevention, we are talking about a consistent plea for reason and peaceful example at every level of society -- from the fireside corner to the uppermost strata of world leadership.

Çelik finished his heartfelt speech with his expectation that the Symposium would yield a plan of action that the Ministry of National Education (MONE) would implement in all Turkish schools along with a comprehensive monitoring system by the end of 2006.

Delivering his keynote address at the opening of the Symposium, UNICEF Country Representative, Edmond McLoughney, drew on his childhood experience of the issue:

Violent forms of discipline were very much a part of the world in which I grew up. Both parents and teachers made unquestioning use of corporal punishment to discipline the children in their care.

Few would have seen this as wrong when ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ was the hopeless dictum that excused punishments ranging from a mild but nevertheless humiliating slap on the legs to more extreme abuses that were frankly barbaric. As children we learned to accept violent behaviour by the example of our elders but it is only as adults that many of us who suffered these abuses in our formative years have come to realise the detrimental effects that such maltreatment had upon us.

My own children are thankfully growing up in more enlightened times. They have never been subjected to violent discipline -- even of the mildest kind -- and they are none of them the worse for it, having missed out on nothing that would contribute to their healthy and happy development.

They have, undoubtedly, gained so much more in their understanding that life is a much richer and productive experience when it is not marred by the futility of violence.

McLoughney quoted the disturbing fact that four children die every day in the European Region as a result of violence and added that:

Violence at school is a global issue -- it is not a particular feature that sets Turkish schools aside from their counterparts in any other part of the world.

Nevertheless,this Symposium represents a tremendous opportunity for Turkey to set an example to her European neighbours and to schools all over the world by eradicating the problem and making schools safer for Turkish children.

The Ministry of National Education will have the full support and assistance of UNICEF in this endeavour.

About the Symposium

The primary objectives of the Symposium which took place on the 29th and 30th of March were to:

• increase awareness on violence in and around schools;
• stimulate further public debate of the issue;
• contribute to the preparation of an effective action plan for the elimination of violence in schools.

Secondary objectives were to:

• share research on the issue between national and international experts;
• identify areas where further research would be necessary;
• set up partnerships between government institutions, international bodies, NGOs, universities and the media in order to facilitate elimination of violence in schools.

The encroachment of violent themes into communications and entertainment was considered an especially pernicious influence on the general perception, and acceptance of violence as a feature of everyday life. The role of the media was discussed extensively in this context since uncritical access to violent themes on television, in print and also on the Internet is unquestionably harmful -- especially for children.

Participants generally agreed that, far from being an impartial observer of the central issue, the media had a responsibility to act in an ethical, considered fashion when reporting on incidence of violence and schools. By avoiding sensational angles and demonstrating greater social responsibility in a measured handling of broader aspects of the issue, both press and television could do a great deal to elevate general awareness of violence and schools without exacerbating panic or inciting public outrage.

Closing the Symposium, participants produced a Declaration outlining the various roles and responsibilities of stakeholders.

The First Violence and School Symposium: Taking Preventive Measures against Violence towards Children in the School Environment -- International Symposium Declaration

We, the representatives of government, including the Ministry of National Education and other intergovernmental organisations, representatives of non-governmental organisations, civil society, experts, the media, families and children have gathered together in İstanbul, Turkey, on the 29th and 30th of March 2006 at The First Violence and School Symposium: Taking Preventive Measures against Violence towards Children in the School Environment.

We have agreed on the following principles concerning the issue of violence towards children in and around the school environment:

1. There should be no violence in the lives of children.
2. Children should be involved in the development, implementation and monitoring of preventive measures to combat violence against them.
3. Society should recognise its role and honour its responsibility to prevent all forms of violence against children.

Bearing these principles in mind, our recommendations are as follows:

Government institutions should:

• Establish legislative preventive measures against violence
• Mobilise the required financial and human resources to implement such a scheme
• Increase the capacity of civil servants working with and for children to identify methods of resolving all forms of conflict within the school environment
• Increase coordination amongst all actors
• Launch an awareness campaign against violence in all its forms

The Ministry of National Education should:

• Develop policies and standards for the establishment of safe schools
• Increase the capacity, primarily of school principals and teachers, in the areas of conflict resolution, mediation and positive discipline methods
• Expand better parenting training programmes to provide coverage throughout the country
• Establish mechanisms by which children can discuss and resolve their conflicts
• Develop and expand child-friendly school standards for quality education
• Monitor implementation of the new curriculum by teachers in order to ensure that children are being taught essential life skills such as effective communication, decision-making, problem-solving and conflict resolution
• Enhance the schools infrastructure with the provision of extra-curricular activities such as art and sports

Schools should:

• Promote and realise human rights principles
• Increase communication among families, children, schools and the community
• Identify behavioural rules for students and staff in a participatory process
• Adopt and practice a range of disciplinary measures that take full account of all phases of student development
• Display an open and consistent attitude toward violent incidents without ignoring them
• Take preventive measure to increase safety in schools
• Increase active child participation in line with the principles of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Parents should:

• Behave as positive role models for their children at all times
• Provide guidance and set ground rules for acceptable behaviour with their children
• Promote democracy within the family and acknowledge the child’s right to participate in all decisions concerning him or her by ensuring that he or she does so
• Promote trust and confidence between themselves and their children
• Be aware of who their children’s friends are and what are they doing together
• Support school policies and rules for safe learning environments

The media should:

• Support on-going and planned programmes to raise awareness of the issue of violence amongst children and their families
• Develop an ethical approach to reporting news about violence in the context of school and promote positive solutions to the problem
• Inform the public about school activities aimed at reducing and preventing violence in school

It is expected that the outcome of this Symposium will contribute to the United Nations Global Study on Violence against Children and enhance research, monitoring and coordination amongst various international and national research institutions and networks.

As the symposium participants, we hereby publicly declare our determination to fulfil our duties and responsibilities on the above-mentioned matters; that we will closely monitor implementation of the recommendations of this Symposium and we invite all segments of society to cooperate in preventing violence in and around schools.

The Next Step

A national plan of action for the elimination of violence in schools, based on the findings of the Symposium is in preparation. MONE will implement the plan of action in all schools by the end of 2006 through its nationwide child-friendly schools system.

The various presentations and findings of the Symposium will be published in book form during the interim.

The Symposium is also expected to contribute its findings to the United Nations Global Study on Violence against Children -- a joint initiative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) -- which is predicated on the right of every child to protection from all kinds of violence. The study aims to stimulate action at local, regional, national and international levels by compiling extant research and data about the nature, causes and extent of violence against persons less than 18 years of age in order to prevent and ultimately eliminate the problem.

The UN Global Study on Violence against Children will be published later in 2006 following a presentation to the UN General Assembly.

For more information:

Sema Hosta, Communications Officer, UNICEF Turkey,
Tel: +90 (0)312 454 1010

Fatma Özdemir-Uluç, Education Officer, UNICEF Turkey,
Tel: +90 (0)312 454 1007

Visit the Ministry of Education web site for more about the Symposium.

Visit violencestudy.org for more about the United Nations Global Study on Violence against Children.

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