Teaching union members will today hear calls for funding and training to allow school and college staff in Northern Ireland help combat gender violence.
Members of the NASUWT are set to discuss the need for more assistance in schools to allow staff to teach and promote approaches to tackle the issues of sexual harassment and violence against women and girls.
The union’s annual conference, taking place this weekend outside Belfast, will hear how schools and colleges should be places of safety and must be supported in tackling the problem of sexual harassment or violence towards students or staff.
Members will today call for the ‘Active Bystander Approach’ to be implemented across schools and colleges.
It is a strategy that empowers individuals to actively intervene in situations where they witness or suspect potential harm, thus creating a collective responsibility to prevent and address violence.
A motion to be debated at the conference will condemn the “alarming rates of violence against women and girls (VAWG) across these islands, and the detrimental impact of VAWG on the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of individuals, leading to long-lasting consequences”.
Members are expected to back calls for the development, funding and implementation of training programmes for educators to equipping them with skills and knowledge to effectively teach and promote the ‘Active Bystander Approach’.
Justin McCamphill, NASUWT national official NI, said: “Sexual harassment and sexist abuse towards both female teachers and pupils in schools and colleges is becoming more common.
“Incidents of violence are on the rise also and more needs to be done to tackle what is a violation of the human rights of women and girls.
“We need to proactively tackle the issue of violence against women and girls through the development of Active Bystander Approach training across our schools and colleges in order to foster a safer and more respectful society for all.”
