Baifikrom (C/R), Dec. 23, GNA - Plan Ghana, an international child-centred community development organization, has launched a campaign= to end violence in schools.

The campaign, dubbed "Learn Without Fear", is to bring to the fore t= he need to make the school environment child-friendly to allay fears of violence and intimidation from children.

Launching the campaign in the Mankessim Programme Area of Plan Ghana= at Baifikrom in the Mfantseman Municipality, Ms Vivian Etroo, Municipal director of Education, cautioned teachers against making sexual advances to school children as sexual harassment intimidates children. She cautioned them also not to take the cane to the classroom, not e= ven to be used as a pointer to the work on the chalkboard or flip-chart. Ms Etroo advised against insulting and knocking of children in schoo= l and in the home.

"Parents, teachers and society must do away with tendencies which co= uld put the child in trauma," she said.

Mr Sulemana Gbana, Programme Area Manager of Plan Ghana, said the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Ghana was a signatory, as well as the Children Act (Act 560) enjoined the government,=

organizations and individuals to protect children from all forms of abuse= in the society.

He said his organization which aimed at ensuring that the child's talents were developed in a violence-free atmosphere would insist that th= e school environment was supportive of effective and quality delivery of service to children. Mr Gbana said sexual abuse had been identified as one of the threats= to a safe school environment, and mentioned household poverty, the lack of parental care and control, peer influence and weak morals on part of teachers as some major causes of the problem. "Child abuse in schools is a reality and I urged all stakeholders to=

join hands to make the school environment a place where every child would=

want to be," he said, adding that this was the goal of the campaign. Mr George Cobbinah Yorke, Advocacy and Governance Advisor of Plan Ghana, called on government to outlaw all forms of violence against child= ren and to ensure that the laws were rigidly enforced.

He appealed to communities to have independent and child-friendly reporting mechanisms where the child could go and lodge complaints about abuse. Mr Yorke urged the communities to work out strategies and solution t= o address violence in schools.

Mr Emmanuel Nketiah, Police Chief Inspector in charge of the Mankess= im Police Station, cautioned parents against attempts to solve defilement an= d rape cases at home. He said parents could be held as accomplices when the police got to know of such attempts later.