GEARR-ing Up for Success After School: Reflections on safer schools work in Uganda

• In Event: Safe to learn and safe to benefit- innovative approaches to tackle safeguarding and school-based GBV (SRGBV) in challenging contexts

Proposal

Safeguarding and child protection has been core to PEAS' operations from the outset. External evaluations have highlighted that PEAS has stronger child protection policies, training and implementation than non-PEAS schools, and students feel infrastructure is safer than in government schools (Jigsaw, 2021 & EPRC, 2018). However, PEAS recognises that working to keep children free from harm is never done. There is a constant need to review, update and strengthen safeguarding approaches.
Drawing on GEC's safeguarding and child protection guidelines and standards, PEAS developed its Safeguarding Standards and Monitoring Tool to bring together a range of policies and guidance developed over 15 years of operations. This tool is used across PEAS' 36 secondary schools in Uganda and Zambia. PEAS have found that the Safeguarding Standards and Monitoring Tool are providing leaders with greater clarity on what they must deliver and enabling PEAS to collect more concrete data about the strength of implementation and where we can provide greater support.

• Enabled a better understanding of the schools' strengths in safeguarding and where they need to focus improvements to keep all students safe.
• Enabled learners to provide feedback and express their views on what makes a safer school
Leveraging evidence from their secondary school network, PEAS works hand in hand with governments to adapt PEAS approaches in government secondary schools. Since 2021, PEAS has worked with the Gender Unit within the Ministry of Education & Sports to adapt PEAS' safeguarding approaches to strengthen safeguarding in government schools and identify approaches that can be scaled nationally. PEAS is currently partnering with the MoES to establish a continuous cycle of improvement in 215 secondary schools across Uganda. PEAS and the Gender Unit are piloting approaches to strengthen safeguarding in 75 of these schools. This work includes supporting district education actors and schools to establish or strengthen the 'Senior Woman and Man Teacher' role.

The Ministry of Education set up the Senior Woman / Man Teacher role to provide pastoral support to students and support the effective implementation of safeguarding policies. In practice, this role is often not effective at the school level. However, in PEAS schools, evidence shows Senior Women Teachers are positively impacting the environment for learning (Jigsaw, 2021). PEAS uses its experience to work with the Gender Unit to tackle the gap between national guidance and school practice. Since partnering with the Gender Unit, the secondary-level national inspection tool has been adapted to include a stronger focus on safeguarding. PEAS aims to scale its work with the Gender Unit across all 215 PEAS partner schools to inform national-level decision-making that strengthens safeguarding in all secondary schools across Uganda.

Author

• Maureen Kizito, PEAS Uganda