Gender Based Violence Among Students in Secondary School

Gender Based Violence (GBV) in and around school has been documented as one of the serious problems facing secondary schools in Malawi today. Schools have thus not been child-friendly place as they are expected to be; such that they have become one of the hostile places for students. One of the major reasons for such status is the social phenomenon of violence. Violence in and around schools have been perpetrated by fellow students teachers as well as acquaintances at home. Nonetheless what has transpired in the recent times is the increase in gender-based violence. In patriarchy societies the act of gender-based violence is mostly directed towards girls. However both boys and the girls are the victims of gender-based violence. GBV in schools affects student’s academic performance as well as the attention in class. Therefore it is against this background that this study investigated the effects of gender-based violence among the students in secondary schools. Subsequently the study established that GBV is a common phenomenon in secondary schools with girls being the most victims.