Five Dimensions of a Child Friendly School
Proactively Inclusive
Inclusion means including ALL children. A country cannot claim to have universal primary education if some children are not in school, and not receiving education, for whatever reason – whether because of a physical or mental learning difficulty of any kind, poverty or some other social, economic or political reason.
Children can also be excluded from education within school, due to the way lessons are taught, the language of instruction, teachers’ expectations of children’s abilities or teachers’ lack of teaching skills to be able to address these problems.
Academically Effective
Children need to be motivated to want to learn. To be effective, education needs to be relevant to children’s lives at the time they are in the classroom, and relevant to the future work that they may be engaged in.
The two basics of effective, relevant teaching are:
- Teaching quality
- Relevant, accessible curriculum materials
These areas need to be addressed (within the national system as well as at community level) to develop this dimension.
Healthy and Positive
To be a Child-Friendly School, a school needs to provide clean, accessible drinking water, sanitation facilities and hygiene education at the very minimum. In addition to these basic facilities, a CFS should also develop educational strategies for: teaching life skills; implementing non-violent, child-based behaviour management; addressing bullying and abuse of different types and severity.
To develop, the concepts of healthiness and protection need to be broadened and should also include collaboration with and cooperation between different projects and sectors involved with the health and well-being of children.
Gender Responsive
To be a Child-Friendly School, schools (and the communities which support them) need to recognize, support and develop the concept of equal rights on the part of both sexes and to be proactive in making this happen.
Within schools, gender stereotyping can occur within:
- Teacher behaviour towards students
- Children’s treatment of and attitude towards each other
- Portrayal of girls/boys in text books
- Treatment of male and female teachers
The issue of equality is not just a school issue but may be reflected in society as a whole and as such may be affected by cultural practices and expectations. However, schools and teachers have an important role to play in providing positive, day-to-day role models for children.
Community Participation
Child-Friendly Schools recognize that community partnership is the key to achieving their goals. Failure to involve parents and the community is a significant barrier to developing progress in the other four dimensions.
However, participation has to be meaningful. Schools need to develop genuine partnerships with parents and the community, rather than schools just telling them what to do or what will happen, or expecting parents and the community to contribute money or labour with no involvement in the overall vision or plan.
All people engage most actively and enthusiastically when they see that the task has a real and clear purpose and that the outcomes really improve the situation.