AFRICA COLLOQUIUM
SEMINAR
GENDER–BASED VIOLENCE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL: PERSPECTIVES FROM KENYA, MALAWI, NIGERIA, & JAMAICA
There is global concern over gender-based violence in schools. An estimated 246 million school-going children and adolescents experience violence and bullying in some form every year (UNESCO, 2016). A global review has found that emotional violence increases a child’s risk of dropping out of school twofold. Curiously, given that its coverage in the media has been on the increase, there is inadequate evidence-based data on gender-based violence in schools in Africa and the Caribbean. The present study seeks to correct the anomaly. It is based on research that was conducted in phases in four different countries (Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and Jamaica) through focus group discussions and structured interviews sessions with various stakeholders –girls and boys in primary schools – from 2019 to February 2020, just before Covid 19 struck. It deploys the femicide theory that brings to attention the patriarchal power structures which impose masculine dominance over the female embodied and social life (Corradi et al, 2016, p. 981). Violence is inherently linked to power and there is arguably no act of violence that does not intersect with gender. The study: looks at a systematic documentation of girls plight of sexual, physical and psychological gender-based violence in primary schools to establish when and where the girls are most vulnerable; tabulates indicators of contributory factors to gender based violence in the context identified; and provides a summary/listing or menu of the forms of gender-based violence in the specified contexts. The data was analysed using NVIVO, and Excel as applicable. Overall findings show that gender-based violence in schools is high among girls, the pupils lack appropriate support, and there is an absence of effective reporting mechanisms and school-based programmes to address the problem.
PRESENTER
DR. MARY AKINYI OTIENO*
KENYATTA UNIVERSITY
WHEN
TUESDAY 27TH JUNE 2023
VENUE
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 897 2204 0633
Passcode: 916678
TIME
14.00 HRS NAIROBI
*The seminar is a presentation of an aspect of a collaborative study by Mary Otieno, AdefunkeEkine, Dasmine Kennedy & Madalo Samati