THE MISFORTUNE OF JULIANA Victor Issaka Kpandja (EI Africa Regional Office)
Education is an instrument which enables us to build societies. The essence of education to the best of my knowledge is to promote values pertaining to skills, peace, development, justice, equity, prosperity etc. It is in this sense that it commonly said: “Education is key to development.� It is therefore recommendable that every child be given a chance to learn, and, equally, every teacher be able to teach without fearing his or her workplace, so as to bring out his or her best. From my perspective as Professional Assistant in my organisation, I realised that there are so many challenges to making education what we wish it to be. One of these challenges which is negatively impacting on our schools, is School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV). Like many people, before I had the opportunity to take part in the SRGBV Peer Learning Sessions, I thought of SRGBV as sexual harassment or rape perpetrated by a male teacher against a female student. Through participation in the peer learning sessions, I discovered other realities. Of cases, where SRGBV was perpetuated by a student against a fellow student or by a teacher against his or her colleague. SRGBV is also about corporal punishment or language abuse. One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially SDG4 calls on governments to promote an inclusive and quality Education. I believe all the governments are committed to work toward the achievement of the SDG4, by 2030. Moreover, in Africa there is an agenda called Continental Education 105
