Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempted sexual act using coercion, threats or physical force. In schools, this may involve sexual harassment, aggressive or unsolicited sexual advances, assault, forced sex or rape. Male pupils and male teachers are usually the perpetrators, and female pupils disproportionately the victims. In addition, in the vicinity of schools, adult men ("sugar daddies") may seek out schoolgirls for sex in exchange for money or gifts. Some girls may enter relationships with male pupils, teachers or other adults willingly but others who are under pressure to pay school fees, buy books and uniforms, or simply to survive, may be pushed into dependent and potentially exploitative liaisons.

It has long been recognised that violence against children, including sexual abuse, is a global concern. It exists in the home, the community and the workplace. Yet there is reluctance to admit that it also exists in schools and other institutions caring for children and that, most shockingly, some violence is perpetrated by teachers, who are supposed to be figures of respect and authority. Pervasive violence in society unfortunately prepares young people to expect and accept it as a part of everyday life, including at school.

What forms does sexual violence take in schools?

On a daily basis, the greatest threat of sexual violence in schools is to girls who receive sexual advances from older male pupils. Sexual advances by teachers may be fewer in number but they are more shocking because of the abuse of trust involved. Such behaviour by teachers offers a dangerous role model to male pupils and has a negative impact on both pupils and parents; a single case in a community may discourage parents from sending their daughters to school. Although female pupils are most frequently the targets of sexual violence, it may also be directed at male pupils, female teachers and those who have same-sex preferences. Some forms of sexual violence are specific to certain cultures, e.g., acid attacks on girls in South Asia or jack rolling (gang rape) in South Africa.

Sexual violence is only one form of school-based violence; others include bullying, corporal punishment (widespread in many countries even when officially banned), verbal abuse, and psychological and emotional abuse (such as denying a pupil access to resources or support, threatening exam failure or beatings). Most types of violence have a gender dimension and so schools become a breeding ground for potentially damaging gendered practices that remain with pupils into adult life. This is a violation of a child's right to an adequate education in a safe environment, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Much of the violence experienced in schools involves males affirming their dominance over females, for example, a boy cornering a girl, touching, pinching, groping, and shouting obscenities to demean or humiliate her; a male teacher touching a girl's breasts while pretending to read her exercise book in class, ordering a girl to come to his office and then molesting her. For many girls, this invasion of their private space is an unavoidable part of school life. In some instances, teachers offer girls higher grades in exams in exchange for sex.

Why does it exist in schools?

Sexual violence originates in the imbalance in power between males and females and in socially accepted views of what constitutes male and female behaviour. The school is a prime site for the construction of male and female identity and at this formative age, adolescents can learn that masculine identity is associated with aggressive, dominant behaviour and feminine identity with submissive, dependent behaviour. And so boys act out their beliefs of what it means to be male, while girls learn to make themselves attractive to boys.

Pupils who do not conform to accepted gender behaviour may be bullied or attacked. The peer culture plays an important role in this socialisation process. Peer pressure may require that older boys aggressively demand girls' attention since their status in the group may depend on having one or more girlfriends and competing over girls. If a girl turns a boy's proposal down, she may well risk being assaulted or subjected to sexually explicit verbal abuse. In this way young people are encouraged, and sometimes forced, into sexual relationships, often with multiple partners. This pressure to conform influences sexual practice and so serves to increase young people's exposure to the risk of HIV infection, other STIs and unwanted pregnancy.

Male teachers who exploit the advantage of their sex and their authority by having sexual relations with pupils are rarely expelled from the teaching profession, even if they get a schoolgirl pregnant; some are merely transferred to another school. Other teachers often choose to ignore what is going on, heads are reluctant to report the matter because of the burden of a bureaucratic investigation, and pupils and parents are either intimidated or lack information about how to make a complaint. High levels of apathy among officials and a reluctance to believe pupils who make allegations are contributory factors. To complicate matters, not all parents, teachers and girls disapprove of teachers or older men having sexual liaisons with schoolgirls, whether for economic or cultural reasons.

Where violence is allowed to flourish and is not discouraged by disciplinary action, it becomes an integral and institutionalised part of school life, something "normal" or "inevitable". Indeed, many teachers view aggressive and intimidating behaviour by boys as part of "growing up" and not to be taken seriously. By tolerating violence, the authorities are implicitly sanctioning its practice.

What can be done?

Only an imaginative holistic approach – bringing together teachers, parents, pupils, education officials and civil society – can make schools safe environments for schoolchildren. All aspects of the culture of violence need to be tackled, whether it is sexual violence and abuse, excessive corporal punishment or bullying.

In particular, Ministries of Education need to take greater responsibility for tackling the issue in schools. If perpetrators are prosecuted firmly and quickly, this sends a clear message that violence will not be tolerated. At the same time, corporal punishment and bullying need to be stamped out, as there are clear connections with sexual violence. Training courses need to provide trainee teachers with strong messages about professional and ethical conduct and available sanctions. The South African government has set an example by recently passing legislation banning sexual relations between educators and learners. In the United Kingdom, such relations are a criminal offence, even if the learner is over the age of consent and in the USA schools can now be held liable in cases of sexual harassment.

Within the school, efforts also need to be made, both through the curriculum and through school management and discipline, to encourage more collaborative relationships between pupils and between teachers and pupils. Acknowledging that school-going adolescents engage in sexual activity, reporting cases of teachers' sexual misconduct and eliminating the negative role model that this provides to boys may also lay the ground for teaching about sexual health in a more constructive environment.

Teachers need to take responsibility for listening to both boys and girls and engaging them in constructive dialogue. Sex education and guidance and counselling as school subjects should be used to create a deeper and more positive understanding of what it is to be female or male and to promote notions of negotiated and responsible sex. In this, men and boys need to be seen as part of the solution and not just the problem.

Zero tolerance towards violence

Schools that offer examples of good practice are those that do not tolerate any form of violence, that offer a more open and supportive environment for pupils, especially girls, where discipline is imposed without resorting to physical punishment, and where expectations of both teacher and pupil behaviour are high. These are usually schools that openly espouse democratic values; they often initiate forms of pupil representation such as student councils, and offer opportunities for pupils to have their voices heard and their complaints addressed.

Such schools are rare in the developing world. It is noticeable that most innovative work with young people to challenge dominant gender relations and to encourage them to change unsafe sexual behaviour has been done by NGOs and not by schools. The work of DramAidE, Soul City and the Storyteller Group in South Africa stands out.¹ Traditional teaching methods provide information and knowledge but do not provide a forum for questioning existing gender roles, identities and practices, and for developing more constructive and consensual relationships. Instead, participatory approaches are required. Activities involving drama, media, art, poetry and storytelling have all been shown to be particularly effective, as has the use of peer educators and peer counsellors. Schools need to learn from such initiatives.

Fiona Leach, senior lecturer Sussex School of Education; University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QQ, United Kingdom; tel.: +44-1273-67.82.56, e-mail: f.e.leach@sussex.ac.uk and Pamela Machakanja, senior lecturer, Africa University Zimbabwe and University of Bradford, United Kingdom; e-mail: p.machakanja@bradford.ac.uk

More information: An Investigative Study of the Abuse of Girls in African Schools, Fiona Leach et al, DFID Education Research report No 54, 2003: www.dfid.gov.uk/Pubs/files/investudyafrica_edpaper54.pdf

1. DramAidE is an AIDS, life-skills and sexuality education programme aimed at schoolchildren and teachers, www.und.ac.za/und/dramaide; Soul City is multi-media health promotion and social change project, www.soulcity.org.za; and the Storyteller Group uses comic stories as a tool to explore the gendered dimensions of violence within adolescent relationships.