Strategy for Protecting Students in the School Environment

Brief Description

In 2017, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education launched a “Strategy for Protecting Students in The School Environment”, which aims to protect school students from all kinds and forms of violence. This strategy is implemented at two levels: prevention and response. The strategy is in coordination with two ministries: the Ministry of Justice regarding sexual violence, and the Ministry of Social Affairs in child labor cases. This policy includes Lebanese students, students from Syria and other neighboring countries enrolled in official schools. This strategy provides prevention for students and students through raising awareness and educational guidance on violence, and providing a trained educational counselor at the school (currently in about 30 schools). It also provides response services through school visits and information on the existence of any violence within or outside the school, including domestic violence. Coordination with the Ministries of Justice and Social Affairs is being carried out in this area. While the Ministry of Education and Higher Education deals with cases of school violence, cases of sexual violence are transferred to juvenile protection in the Ministry of Justice and child labor cases to the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Through this strategy, the Ministry of Education has been able to gather information on the number of cases of violence among Lebanese students and students displaced from Syria and other neighboring countries enrolled in public schools. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Lebanon, has completed a study of the factors that endanger boys and girls in vocational and technical schools. In addition to its work on the integration of gender concepts and violence based on it, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education is considered the leading ministry in establishing a gender perspective unit that includes representatives from all departments and departments, and the Educational Center for Research and Development.