The third International Congress “Personality Education: Standards and Values” held in Moscow on September 24-25, 2015 provided a good opportunity to launch School without Violence guide. The Guide has been developed for Russian educators based on UNESCO’s regional guide on school violence prevention. It informs education managers, school administrators and teachers about the causes of violence and suggests practical solutions.
The Guide School without Violence explores many manifestations of violence in school (with a strong focus on gender-based violence), examines its causes and risk factors, looks at personal characteristics, gender and age difference of victims and perpetrators and considers multiple consequences of violence.
The Guide discusses several strategies for preventing and addressing violence at both school and individual levels, including school climate assessment, development of school policy on violence and mechanisms for preventing, detecting, registering, reporting cases of violence and providing counseling and support to victims, perpetrators and witnesses. The Guide outlines specific roles and responsibilities for teachers, school administrators, other staff as well as learners and parents in violence prevention and response. It provides recommendations for community engagement and cooperation with other service providers to implement violence prevention measures and offer training, support and referrals to learners, teachers and parents.
The Guide School without Violence has been developed by the Commonwealth of Education Organizers, a Russian non-governmental organization, with technical support provided by UNESCO regional HIV and health education programme (based at UNESCO IITE). It was widely disseminated across the Russian Federation among regional education authorities, teacher-training universities and colleges, educational portals.