The Island of September 7 carried a news report titled " Protest against rape of a school girl, and molestation of advanced level students". A school girl of 16 years was alleged to have been raped, and five of her colleagues molested by a group of five teachers of a Maha Vidiyalaya in Talawakelle. It was reported that the only disciplinary action taken against the perpetrators of this crime, was a transfer to another school! I would wish to bring to the attention of your readers, some recent research findings on the issue of sexual violence against young girls in school in South Africa. These findings are reported in the special issue of "Insights-Development Research", a publication of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, U. K. As sexual abuse in schools is not exclusively an African problem, perhaps, we should try to reflect on these research findings, and see what we can learn from them.

Some important findings from the research were -:

— "Sexual abuse in girls by male teachers, and male pupils is widespread, institutionalised, and pervasive."

I believe, statistics on sexual abuse in schools in our country is hard to come by, but going by the media coverage in recent times to such incidents, it seems to be an increasing problem.

— "The reluctance of education authorities to address the issue and to prosecute perpetrators allow abuse to flourish unchecked. By their inaction, authorities condone and encourage it."

This is exactly what has happened at Talawekelle. The education authorities have failed to take appropriate disciplinary action against the perpetrators. The message this type of action sends out to those resorting to this type of offence needs little elaboration. It is reported that the perpetrators were allowed to go un punished because of political pressure!

— "Fear of abusive teachers, and mistrust of other staff who turn a blind eye, prevents students from reporting incidents."

What had happened in Talawakelle incident was, that, when two senior students of the school, dared to expose the behaviour of these teachers, they were molested to such an extent, leading to suicide by one of them.

— "Sexual abuse of girls in school, is a reflection of gender violence and inequality in the wider society."

Gender violence is not uncommon in our society as well.

* "The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS has increased girls vulnerability to sexual abuse."

Although, it is not a wide spread problem in our country just now, this high risk factor need to be borne in mind.

Based on these findings, the researchers recommend that the South African government urgently implement a national policy on how to deal with sexual violence in schools.

Recognizing the complex set of issues involved in gender violence in schools, the researchers also recommends that:

— "Government to initiate media and community based campaigns around abuse that link up with human rights, social exclusion, and HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives."

In this regard, following the Talawakelle school incident, it is encouraging to hear that a community based protest march and meeting was organised with the help of a religious group.

— "Training and awareness raising are crucial in the fight against gender violence,

With this in view a training module called " Open our Eyes ", addressing gender based violence in South African schools has been developed, as part of a 5 year partnership between the South African National Department of Education, Mc Gill University in USA, and CIDA. This module is designed to be used at school level as well as Teacher Training establishments. The researchers go on to state, that although this training module is developed for South Africa, it is of relevance to other countries too.Therefore, our local education authorities may wish to have a look at this training module, and assess the relevance/ adaptability to our own scenario. It is very unfortunate that children are abused in the very place where they should feel most safe. Therefore, it is difficult to accept, in our society, that a school is a site of abuse, rather than a haven against abuse perpetrated elsewhere!

Dr. Terence Perera, FRCP, DCH,
Colombo 5.