Anti-violence school programmes ‘not working’
Problems cited by schools include the pressure of examinations, an overcrowded curriculum and the “possibility of parental opposition”.
The study was conducted by the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, known as Cosc, which operates within the Department of Justice.
The report said a key goal of the Government’s national strategy in this area is to promote “healthy relationships” in children and young people and develop among them “an intolerance” of domestic and sexual violence. It said the Social, Personal and Health Education Programme (SPHE) and the Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE), which is part of it, were designed to provide schoolchildren with a range of general skills to foster respectful and equal relationships. But it concluded: “For most schools SPHE and RSE programmes, as they exist, have little or no effect on helping to raise awareness among post-primary pupils of either domestic or sexual violence.”
The research found:
* 84% of Junior Cycle students said SPHE was not effective in raising awareness about domestic violence, with 50% saying it did so only “a little” and 34% saying “not at all”.
* 81% of Junior Cycle students said it was not effective in raising awareness about sexual violence, with 57% saying it did a little and 24% saying it didn’t at all.
* Among Senior Cycle students, 89% said SPHE was not good at raising awareness about domestic violence, with 27% saying it did so only a little and 45% saying it didn’t at all.
* 69% said it wasn’t good at raising awareness of sexual violence, with 47% saying it did a little and 22% saying not at all.
Specifically in the junior cycle, 43% of schools told researchers parents might be opposed to schools dealing with domestic violence, which may be partly why schools found it harder to raise awareness about domestic violence than sexual violence.
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