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Abstract
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From Uganda to Jamaica to the USA, violence against children at schools is widespread. Teachers are often the perpetrator of this violence, using corporal punishment and sexual and emotional violence against their students. Surprisingly, national prevalence data on teacher violence against children are still not routinely collected in most countries, but surveys show that 90% of primary school students in some areas of Uganda, more than 90% in Jamaica, and 7% of students in Mississippi, USA have experienced physical violence from teachers.
Despite this high prevalence, and the range of known negative health and social impacts of exposure to violence in childhood, there are few interventions available to address violence from teachers towards students that have been robustly evaluated. In The Lancet Global Health, Helen Baker-Henningham and colleagues have published results from their cluster randomised controlled trial of the Irie Classroom Toolbox intervention to reduce violence from teachers towards children in pre-primary schools (aged 3-6 years) in Kingston, Jamaica. The Irie Classroom Toolbox was adapted from the Incredible Years intervention in the USA and refined over a decade. The intervention is explicitly teacher-focused and aims to help "teachers to gain skills, motivation, and opportunity to use positive discipline techniques".Teachers are supported via an initial 5-day workshop, and monthly hour-long, in-classroom, follow-up sessions over 8 months. Baker-Henningham and colleagues' well documented and careful process of adaptation resulted in an intervention that significantly reduced teachers' use of violence. At 12 months post-intervention, 44 (42%) of 105 teachers in the intervention group but only 27 (32%) of 85 teachers in the control group used no physical violence against their pre-primary pupils over the previous 2 days.
The Irie Classroom Toolbox is highly relevant for resource-poor environments, as it does not require teachers to have pre-existing expertise. It is also simple to implement and is therefore likely to be adaptable to diverse settings. These results are particularly interesting because the intervention is implemented in pre-primary schools, and it is likely that preventing experiences of violence against children at this early age will have knock-on positive effects for children's health and positive development. This one intervention might pay long-term dividends across multiple sectors...
Language: en |