How to keep children safe in boarding schools

Last week parents were shocked after an alleged sexual abuse scandal went viral on social media. Some parents, whose children were enrolled at the Dar es Salaam based school, alleged in several audio clips circulated online that their daughters have been sexually abused.

In reaction to the news, some parents raised major concerns over their children’s safety while at school. The fact that the alleged abuse took place at school and the alleged molester is a teacher; parents seem to have lost confidence over the people, school owners, teachers and the school management, whom they entrusted to take care of their children while in school if last week news reports are anything to go by.

“In most cases, school owners, management and the head of school believe that teachers would be honest and trustworthy guardians to the pupils, taking good care and protect them. However, it turns out to be the opposite,” says Careen Edward, a parent stated.

“We thought our children would be safer in private boarding schools,” says Ms Edward. The concerned mother now asks the million dollar question; “how should we keep our children safe in boarding schools?

Benjamin Nkonya, a Chief Executive Officer of Consortium for Independent Education Providers in Sub-Saharan Africa (CIEPSSA), says the sexual abuse allegations are very rare occurrences in schools. “If what is alleged is true, then it is a very unusual thing,” he says, though he didn’t rule out the possibility of such abuse not to occur in private and public schools.

Investing in education

Mr Nkonya says it is high time big companies through their social corporate responsibility policy invest in education, especially in transport for thousands of school children. “In most cases, sexual abuse incidents against school children occur when they are on their way to and from school,” he says.

On the other hand, Mr Nkonya says in order to keep children safe from abuse in schools, school management has to put in place thorough measures when employing teachers and other staff. “School management in both private and public schools should not hire teachers without tracing or checking their backgrounds,” he says.

“For example if a teacher, who is a civil servant, is fired from a public school for misconduct that means he/she will never be hired at any public school. In this case, such a teacher would seek for employment in private schools where they do not take much trouble in checking for teacher’s previous records,” he says.

Ezekiel Oluoch, an education expert, says Tanzania needs to have a teacher’s board, which among other things will be vested with the responsibility of registering all teachers in the country, keeping their records and issuing professional licence to them.

“This will help to identify who is abiding by the professional ethics and conducts and who is not. Registering with such a professional body should be mandatory for a teacher in order for him/her to be issued with a licence. That means a teacher would not be able to get in class if he/she does not have a valid licence. If a registered teacher acts contrary to the code of conducts, he/she should be penalised depending on the magnitude of the offense, including a total ban from teaching in any school,” he clarifies.

Have professional teachers

Mr Oluoch is of the view that some private schools in Tanzania don’t have professional teachers. According to him, some teachers in private schools are educated but they don’t know or care much about teacher’s code of conduct. “A teacher is a guardian: How can a teacher abuse a pupil/student?” He questions.

Mr Oluoch seems not to have all the answers to his question. Being an educationist himself, he seems to believe that no teacher could harm a pupil or children, let alone sexually abuse them. “A teacher is a child protector.

A teacher takes a parental position when the child is at school. After a parent, comes a teacher; therefore schools should hire professional teachers to become matrons or patrons,” he says.

Although there have been such rare incidents of teachers sexually abusing pupils/students, Mr Oluoch suggests that all staff who stay with children at school should be professionally qualified for their roles. “Not all those who stay with our children in boarding schools are teachers by profession. That is where the problem starts,” he says, adding that most private boarding schools do not have matrons and patrons who are trained teachers.

“A boarding school must have a patron and matron who will be the guardian of the pupils/students, assisting them all the time. They should ensure that both girls and boys are safe from any form of abuse while in school,” he says, adding that pupils/students in school also suffer from bullying and other forms of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from their fellow pupils/students or from other staff. In this case, he suggests that schools owners should make it their duty to ensure that children are safe in schools.

Have protection guidelines

From his experience, Mr Oluoch says that most schools don’t have child protection guidelines. “This is also another area where the problem begins,” he says. He urges the Ministry of Education to ensure that each school has child protection guidelines and that the school management should ensure that such guidelines are strictly followed.

“I am not sure if every school has child protection guidelines. Most schools have ‘teacher’s guidelines’ but not child protection guidelines. If it happens they have it, the document is only on the bookshelf in head teacher’s or headmaster’s office while other teachers and staff know nothing about the document,” he says.

On the other hand, Mr Oluoch urges schools owner to ensure teachers they employ have passed through the Agency for Development in Education Management (ADEM) Collage in Bagamoyo District. “To what extent do school owners consider teachers who have passed through the ADEM?” he queries. He says it should be of the best interest of the education sector if the Ministry of Education will put in place regulations that ensure that every head teacher has to pass through ADEM College.

“Such regulations should also set age qualification for a teacher to head a school. The head teacher should at least be 45-years-old and should have at least ten-years teaching experience. But in most cases, head teachers in some private schools are below that age,” he notes.

For his part, HakiElimu head of program Godfrey Boniventura, says apart from having a supervisors around the school all the time, it is also very important to look for an environment which is applicable for child development.

Provide protection

“Children should be taught how to protect themselves in case someone tries to abuse them. With proper training children will be courageous to fight against and report any form of abuse they face in schools and even at home,” he says.

Mr Boniventura calls for strict measures to provide protection in schools. “Schools should have security 24 hours a day. One would be very surprised to hear of any form of abuse happening to pupils/students who are in boarding school. Where are the guards when such alleged abuse happens in schools?” he queries, saying having professional guards in schools would to a great extent ensure the safety of the children.

“Mixing pupils/students of different age in a single dormitory can also be part of the problem,” he says, adding; “Let little children sleep with little ones in boarding schools. If you allow little ones to sleep with their brothers or sisters, the little ones would be mistreated. We can apply this at our house too. We should not allow little children to sleep with adults because the chances of them to be abused or harassed are higher.”

On the other hand, Mr Boniventura seems to not support the idea of taking little children to boarding school. He urges parents to take their children to boarding school only when they are grown up at least at their teen age enough to take care of themselves. “In my opinion, taking nursery pupils to boarding school is not right,” he says.

Mr Mkonya supports Mr Boniventura’s position, saying regardless of how busy parents are; they should find time to raise and nurture their children instead of taking them to boarding schools at a very young age, leaving the parental responsibilities to teachers.

Mr Mathew Levi, head teacher at Royal Elite Schools, shares some of the child protection guidelines, which he says his school abides by. “Children should not accept offers from strangers in the absence of their parents; They should also avoid being alone with anybody in dark places. These are some of the things that children should be taught and understand,” he says.

He says the child protection guidelines also explain to children not to allow anybody to touch their chest, back and private parts except their parents; they should report any danger or abuse against them to people they trust; and they should shout loud or run away in case someone wants to force them into doing something they don’t want to do.