A Policy Study and Roles of Secondary Schools in Phitsanulok to End Gender-Based Violence

Abstract

          Gender-based violence, or violence against women and girls, is a severe violation of human rights. It does not only negatively affects women, but also affects their families, communities and countries. Gender-based violence includes psychological, physical and sexual violence, and harmful practices which may be found in or related to schools. In consequence, the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) has proposed the whole-school approach to end School-Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV) since April 2023. The objectives of this research are to explore the policies and roles of the secondary schools in Phitsanulok in ending violence against women and girls, whether they are consistent or not to the standards and monitoring frameworks for whole-school approach, as proposed by the UNGEI. The research method is qualitative, based on in-depth interviews with 10 key informants who are policy-makers in 5 selected schools. The sampling group comprises 1 principal and 1 teacher in-charge of students’ development activities from each school. The data are analyzed by the analytic induction technique.
          The research results reveal that the secondary schools in Phitsanulok have the policies and roles which are responsive to 5 among 8 domains of the UNGEI’s standards and monitoring frameworks to end SRGBV. The major problems are related to the incident response, and the safe and secure physical environments around the schools. The proposed methods to solve these problems are for the government: to improve the referral links of local child protection systems, and to equalize the school quality throughout the basic education system.