Schools Without Violence
Josephine Bacikin
Rade Koncara 17
23000 Zrenjanin
Serbia

Mirjana (Josephine) Bacikin, President of Susila Dharma Serbia Association in accordance with  the Articles of Association, represents the Association locally and internationally.

The “School without Violence – Towards Safe and Enabling Environment for Children” Program, which is an integral part of the concept “School fit for Children” is part of the programme of activities of the Ministry of Education and Sports planned by its 2005-2010 Strategy, Poverty Reduction Strategy, National Plan of Actions for Children, as well as by an agreement of cooperation between the Ministry and UNICEF.

In September 2005, UNICEF’s Belgrade Office and the Ministry of Education and Sports in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy, Institute for Improvement of Education and Upbringing, and the Council for Child Rights began implementing the “School without Violence – Towards Safe and Enabling Environment for Children” Program in primary schools of Serbia. All partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding, established the Program Steering Committee and Expert Team, and made a detailed Program contents and strategy for its implementation in schools of Serbia.

In October 2005, implementation of the Program commenced in four pilot schools, in March 2006, in another fifty schools, and in October 2006, in further five primary schools in Serbia.

This Program has been primarily designed for children, and the fact that all the adults in schools, all students and all parents pass through several segments of training corroborates that the Program comprehensively approaches the issue of violence among children and against children, with intention to radically change the conventional patterns of behaviour and bring the culture of nonviolence in the upbringing-educational processes.

The basic objective of the Program is: Prevention and reduction of violence against children and among children in the schools in Serbia.

This Program will support schools and the local community in creating a network of collaborators for children protection and providing the working and living conditions that promote and encourage nonviolent behaviour, understanding, mutual respect and a healthy life-style.

Specific goals for each school involved are:

1. To increase the level of awareness/information of the problem in children, school staff, parents and the local community
2. To increase the level of knowledge of the ways and mechanisms of action at school
3. To encourage the motivation for action and changes in local (?) population:, children, parents and other members of society
4. To create a supportive and protective network for the children suffering from abuse and the children showing abusive behaviour
5. To involve children, their, parents, experts and the local community in the behaviour-changing process and in the creation of a different atmosphere at school and outside school.

Expected effects

The Program significantly contributes to the change of school practice, primarily to the improvement of the quality of communication and enhancement of student-to-student, teacher-to-student and teacher-to-teacher relations.

The Program should:

•  Sensitize teachers to the violence in the school ambiance.
  
  
• Transfer knowledge and skills how to act preventively through training and continuous work with students (developing tolerance for diversity and frustrations, making rules, assuming responsibility for behaviour, applying restitution, involving students).
  
  
• Train the teachers to create and promote the culture of nonviolence at school.
  
  
• Transfer specific skills and knowledge of techniques for control of violence at school (mediation in conflicts, implementation of restitution, creating and using individual plans for the change of behaviour of a number of students, managing discipline in the classroom, etc.)
  
  
• Transfer knowledge and skills to selected teachers at using the technique of Forum Theatre to become cognizant of and to react to violent behaviour at school.
  
  
• Give special training to mentors to support implementation of the Program, including carrying out of many trainings scheduled by the Program.

Training program, i.e., in-service training of teachers

For Program implementation, one person is to be educated and engaged, that is, one mentor per school, while the school staff passes through various types of trainings.

Training is carried out according to the following schedule:

1. School staff

• In violence, types, forms, recognizing violence and abusive behaviour in children / students, characteristics of the “abuser’s” and “victim’s” roles,  controlling behaviour by means of rules and restitution / compensation for the damage – 6 hours
• Management of behaviour in the class  – positive discipline and self-discipline – 6 hours

12 hours of training in total

• Management of behavior in the class  community – 3 hours
  
  
• Preventive, psychosocial work with children for improvement of communication, development of tolerance and cooperation and for conflict and  clashes management – 3 hours

    Total A + B = 18 hours of training

C.     Two teachers for Forum Theatre, in addition to the others, receive another 12 hours of training

• Two-day training in implementing the technique of Forum Theatre / Theatre of the Oppressed (Augusto Boal) in the work with students – 2 days, 6 hours each.

    Total A + B = 24 hours of training or if they are homeroom teachers, too A + B + C = 30 hours of training

D. The other school staff receive 6 hours of training in:

• Violence, types, forms, recognizing violence and abusive behaviour in children / students, characteristics of the “abuser’s” and “victim’s” roles,  controlling behaviour by means of rules and restitution / compensation for the damage – 6 hours

    6 hours of training in total

2.     Program mentor receives training in the entire School without Violence Program lasting for 55 hours in total (exclusive of regular meetings and additional trainings carried out during Program implementation). As regards the school staff, mentors receive additional training in the following domains:

E. Trainings received by mentors only:

• Investigation of violence in schools – 4 hours
• Using an animated serial – 3 hours
• Implementation of Forum Theatre – 5 hours
• Implementation of the General Protocol of Protection of Children against Abuse and Neglect – 3 hours
• Total A + B + C + E = 55 hours of training

Training Implementers

Mentors’ training is implemented by the Program Expert Team members and the training of the school staff is implemented by mentors.

Handouts

With each segment of training, mentors, parents, teachers / school get technical material as a support. A CD with all technical materials and instructions for implementation of the Program at school is attached hereto.

Financial requirements: RSD 270,000.00 or an equivalent of 4.500 US dollars for full implementation of the programme in one school. The duration of the programme is one year.

Results to date

Currently, the Program involves 57 mentors, 4,020 school employees and about 38,570 children from first-graders through eight-graders in 59 primary schools in Serbia.

So far, good results have been achieved in implementation of this Program:

• children and adults’ awareness of what violent behaviour is, how to recognize it, how to talk about it, how to resist it together and how to overcome it when it happens has been raised;
  
  
• Knowledge and skills of how to preventively influence us ourselves and each other to have violence and abusive behaviour reduced with time have been acquired;
  
  
• Thanks to the Program, the teamwork in schools has been improved, sensibility to violence has been increased and the level of all employees’ motivation has been raised for building the culture of non-violence not only in schools but in a wider community as well;
  
  
• Violence and abusive behaviour visibility has been raised in media, the importance of involvement in the action whose goal is to build an environment in which our children can grow and develop safely with full affirmation of their capacities has been brought to the attention of the economic sector and of all citizens.

At the moment, a lot of efforts are being made to develop an active participation of children and the family in the Program and school life in general, as well as to promote the Program activities and contents in local communities. In 38 municipalities / towns of Serbia, in which the Program is implemented, the public has been concurrently sensitized and animated to support the Program and thereby the creation of an encouraging and safe environment for all the children.

This is a global programme for students, teachers, parents and the entire community. The main objective of this project is to develop awareness about peer violence, to involve parents and schools in the campaign and the prevention of violence, and to make schools safe and enhancing places for children and youth.

The programme directly contributes to the development of school concepts oriented toward the needs of children (school fit for children, a child-friendly school), which is one of the main objectives of the National Plan of Action for Children in the Republic of Serbia, approved by the Government of the Republic of Serbia in February 2004, and is in line with implementation of the General Protocol on Protection of Children From Abuse and Neglect.

We members of Susila Dharma Serbia (SDS) feel that our active involvement with this project SCHOOLS WITHOUT VIOLENCE would benefit our SDS to gain direct experience with this national project and be able to continue independently similar or the same projects with a then-recognized name of SUSILA DHARMA SERBIA/INTERNATIONAL in Serbia.

The Program mentor receives training in the entire School without Violence Program lasting for 55 hours in total (exclusive of regular meetings and additional trainings carried out during Program implementation). As regards the school staff, mentors receive additional training in the following domains:

E. Trainings received by mentors only:

• Investigation of violence in schools – 4 hours
  
  
• Using an animated serial – 3 hours
  
  
• Implementation of Forum Theatre – 5 hours
  
  
• Implementation of the General Protocol of Protection of Children against Abuse and Neglect – 3 hours

    Total A + B + C + E = 55 hours of training

Training Implementers

Mentors’ training is implemented by the Program Expert Team members and the training of the school staff is implemented by mentors.

Handouts

With each segment of training, mentors, parents, teachers / school get technical material as a support. A CD with all technical materials and instructions for implementation of the Program at school is attached hereto.

Survey from 54 schools in Serbia showed that 65% of children experienced some form of violence at least once during the last three months. 44% children remember that experience during the whole school period. In order to prevent this, UNICEF together with government and experts has developed a comprehensive programme in schools targeting children, their teachers, parents and the entire community.

The schools apply for the involvement in the programme and application process engages the School team, Board of Parents and Students Council. That means, that all the actors in schools are actively participating in the programme from the beginning.

This Program has been primarily designed for children, and the fact that all the adults in schools, all students and all parents pass through several segments of training corroborates that the Program comprehensively approaches the issue of violence among children and against children, with intention to radically change the conventional patterns of behaviour and bring the culture of nonviolence in the upbringing-educational processes.

One of the strategic objectives of the programme is to involve children, the employed, parents, experts and the local community in the behaviour changing process and in the creation of a different atmosphere at school and outside school.

The programme contributes to the change of school practice, primarily to the improvement of the quality of communication and enhancement for student-to-student, teacher-to-student and teacher-to-teacher relations. Once established the system remains in the school and becomes the regular management practice.

The Programme supports schools and the local community in crating a network of collaborators for children protection and providing the working and living conditions that promote and encourage non-violent behaviour, tolerance, understanding, mutual respect and healthy life styles.

In order to become “Safe and enabling environment for children” schools have to pass seven steps. Each step is passed only if the criteria are satisfied. There is a pre-defined check list for each step (phase) of the programme. The indicators for success are number of reported violent cases by children, number of adult participants in conflict resolution (parents, technical schools staff), time during which school completes the seven steps.

Change of school management (Director) might affect smooth implementation of the programme. Also, the innovative and rather comprehensive approach of the programme requires active participation of all actors in the system of education.

a. The core team




c. What kind of support do you have from the local community?

    No, we have not applied to any other agencies.

The financial resources are needed to fully cover 1 school to be engaged in the project of the school in the Vojvodina region is in total of 270,000.00 dinars or in an equivalent of $4.500US.

The funding is sufficient to cover the entire programme in one school. Once the programme is finished (after one school year) it becomes the part of the school management system and is self-sustainable.

The programme will be continued by the Ministry of Education with the partners from the Stearing Committee. This is planned in two years time. The Ministry of Education is preparing the Special Protocol on Protection of Children from violence, abuse and neglect in educational system. This Protocol will ensure further implementation of the programme. Susila Dharma Serbia could continue the programme on its own after gaining the necessary experience.

No, we have not cooperated with other/s SD national or international organization.

This grant will be received by UNICEF which is the legal entity in Serbia, registered with the Government as the Diplomatic Mission.

UNICEF has the Basic Cooperation Agreement with the Government of Serbia.

UNICEF has the government approval to receive donations from abroad.

Commercial Bank a.d. Account no. 908-20501-70 reference number 50311-1945800618

Instruction on swift code will be submitted upon request.

UNICEF: Jelena Zajeganovic Jankovic, Programme Officer

SD Serbia: Mirjana/Josephine Bacikin, President of Susila Dharma Serbia Association

11000 Belgrade, Knjeginje Zorke 83, Serbia

Signed: Josephine Bacikin

Position: President, Susila Dharma Serbia

Date: 25.02.2008., Belgrade, Serbia