Incidence of Violence Against Children

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on Universal Education for all (Goal 2) has received widespread international attention but only recently has the threat posed to its achievement by school-based violence emerged on the policy agenda. Until the 2006 United Nations Study on Violence against Children the problem of school-based violence remained largely invisible for a number of reasons: Schools have typically been viewed as ‘safe’ places for children; debates on prevention of violence against children have largely concerned domestic or stranger violence; and the focus on universal education enshrined in MDG 2 and the Education for all Campaign has been largely about access rather than quality (including the provision of a safe learning environment). To deal with the issue of child abuse there is the need to adopt a participatory approach. This process calls for a new set of approaches that will seriously take into consideration the perspectives of the local people.