The Oyo State government has revealed that many students at the basic school level in the state face one form of gender-based violence or the other which calls for urgent collaborative efforts and interventions by necessary stakeholders to end such menaces in schools.

The Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Professor Salihu Adelabu, said this on Monday in Ibadan during the stakeholders meeting organised by the Youthcare Development and Empowerment Initiative (YCDEI) in partnership with the Fond d’Innovation pour le Development (FID) themed: ‘Ending school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) in primary schools: A two-pronged approach’.

The commissioner lamented that bullying, sexual harassment, and cultism, among others are perpetrated by teachers and students in schools, and that these do not only happen at the primary school level but also at the secondary and tertiary levels as well.

The commissioner stressed that YCDEI and FID brought the project at the right time to support what the government is doing to end all forms of gender-based violence in Oyo State schools.

He assured the organisers that the findings and reports from the project would be put to use in implementing policies that will help the state to end such violence in schools across the state.

He urged teachers in the state to handle their work with professionalism, adding, “If you are standing before your students, see yourself first as their father or mother, before seeing yourself as their teacher. That is the only way the symbiotic relationship can be effective.”

The Executive Director of YCDEI and Principal Investigator of the project, Professor Adefunke Ekine, while speaking on the project’s overview, implementation, and baseline survey analysis report, revealed that the project is an eighteen-month project that started in August last year.

Professor Adefunke Ekine added that they are working with 45 primary schools in Ibadan ─ mostly primary 3 to 6 students ─ and aimed to reach about 5,000 students and 500 teachers.

She stated that the project involves three stages of operation, mainly the baseline, intervention, and result stages.

“The two-pronged approach involves looking into how school gender-based violence affects teachers and students. Training the teachers and students will help them know how to manage these problems in schools,” she said.

The professor further added that the findings and results from the project will be submitted to the Oyo State government for policy formation, implementation, and intervention.

Dr Oluwakemi Adeosun, representing the Executive Chairman of the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (OYOSUBEB), while appreciating the organisers for choosing Oyo State as the plot state for the project, said that the board is constantly making sure that schools in the state are free from violence and safe for learning.

Dr Adeosun enjoined students and staff to look beyond fear and stigmatisation in handling and reporting causes of gender-based violence in their schools, adding that reports from the project will be acted upon to ensure the continuity of these kinds of initiatives.

The investment officer of FID, Anushka Shawla, said that gender-based violence takes many forms and can affect many people at different times of their lives ─ and, yet, that only a few organisations are trying to tackle it, especially in basic schools.

“Gender-based violence is a delicate matter for children to understand and must be treated in a special way. Hence, the training of the teachers and students in this regard,” she said.

Other stakeholders who spoke at the event were Professor Samuel Oladip, from the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ogun State; Grace Abban-Ampiah, a co-investigator of the project from Ghana; and some teachers from the benefitting schools.